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Kansas City, Missorui (KCTV) — There is still a long road ahead for Payton Graves.
A day after surgery, she was released with a smile on her face.
However, the tragic crime has taken a toll on her grandmother, Desiree Saunders, who she spends the weekends with.
It was a tearful reunion outside Children’s Mercy Hospital as the girl was released.
“Oh, look at my baby,” her grandmother said. “She’s limping now. Oh, man.”
It is the first time her grandmother could touch her after she was shot three times in this grocery store parking lot.
“Monday night, she was in dance school,” Saunders said. “Tuesday night she was in the hospital with a bullet in her leg and two in her stomach.”
She’s thankful to the doctors who saved the 8-year-old’s life.
“We’re just praying,” she said. “She’s going on home with two bullets in her, but she’s alive.”
Saunders said she the girl has a big personality and even bigger heart, which is evidenced in a video where she sings about saving stray pets on television who need a home.
“She wells up with tears and she says we got to do something to save them,” he grandmother explained.
Graves made a remarkable recovery after surgery. She requested a limo ride home.
In the meantime, her grandmothers was trying to stay strong.
“We must do better Kansas City,” she said. “For our babies. They are our future and we are not giving them a fair chance to live out every stage of their childhood.”
The family doesn’t know who shot the girl.
Another man she was with was shot seven times, the family told KCTV5 News.
If you have any information about the shooting that took place at Price Chopper, call the police.
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