"Please don't hurt my
mommy!" Little Alexis Goggins
screamed as she jumped
into a hail of gunfire, using her
tiny body as a shield to protect her
mother from an enraged gunman.
When the bullets stopped flying,
the brave 7-year-old, who is
disabled, had been
shot six times.
The terrifying drama
began shortly
before midnight,
Dec. 1, when single
mom Selietha Parker,
30, of Detroit,
her daughter Alexis
and family friend
Aisha Ford, 29, were
taken hostage by
Selietha's ex-boyfriend,
four-time
convicted felon Kelvin Tillie.
"He was mad at her for breaking
up with him," said Detroit
Public Schools official Marvin
Bodley, who is speaking on behalf
of the distraught mother.
Police say Tillie got into the
back seat of Aisha's 1998 Ford
Expedition with Alexis, while
Selietha was in the front passenger
seat. He then ordered
Aisha to drive to a deserted spot outside of the
city called Six Mile Road.
"He looked like he was enraged and didn't
care what he did. I knew if we went to Six Mile
he would kill us," said Aisha.
Aisha told Tillie she was low on gas, and they
stopped at a service station. Aisha went inside
— and immediately called 911.
"Tillie saw Aisha on the phone and guessed
that she was calling the police, and he became
enraged," said Bodley. "He said to Selietha: 'I am
going to kill you' — and he began firing."
The first bullet glanced off Selietha's head,
and as she turned around to try to grab the gun,
Tillie shot her a second time in the right arm,
explained Bodley.
"At this point, Alexis sprang out of her seat
and got between them so he couldn't shoot her
mother and she begged him: 'Please don't hurt
my mommy!'"
But the callous gunman continued shooting.
And little Alexis, a first-grader, was
shot six times with Tillie's 9 mm
semiautomatic handgun — three
times in the head and three times
in the body.
"What a courageous, courageous
little girl. She was prepared
to sacrifice her own life to save
her mother," said Bodley. "Selietha
said if Alexis hadn't jumped
between them she's sure she
would have been killed."
Doctors operated and
removed a bullet from
Alexis' brain, but a bullet that
went through her right eye may leave the child
practically blind. A stroke she suffered as an
infant caused her to lose most of the sight in
her left eye. But aside from her vision, Alexis is
expected to make a full recovery.
"Here is a handicapped child who can barely
make it on her own, yet she always puts others
first. She is an inspiration to all of us," said Bodley.
"Her mother calls her a gift from heaven."
Tillie is now in jail facing numerous felony
charges. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
