JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Ayana Sherman, one of two teenagers injured in a school bus shooting Thursday, has been transferred to Wolfson Children's Hospital after being shot in the back of the head.
Shakayla Singleton, the second girl shot, was out of the hospital and recovering at home Friday after she was shot in the cheek. Detectives said the bullet went "through and through" Singleton's mouth and went through her sinus gland.
Singleton's mother said she won't be returning to school for the rest of the school year.
Officers said the suspected shooter, 16-year-old Edgar Robles, wasn't targeting the girls but was shooting at the bus after a dispute with one of the students on the bus. During the argument, a student spit out a window at Robles.
On Monday, Sherman's grandmother, Rosa Asberry, said Sherman is speaking very little, is not eating and is worried she might be blind in one eye. Asberry said she raised 10 children and four grandchildren and that she helped raise Sherman.
"She's the sweetest little granddaughter you'd ever want," Asberry said. "Ayana doesn't bother anybody. She don't hardly come out of the apartment of her house. If she comes, she'll come to my house. She dances in the church. They dance to the music. That's what she likes to do."
Asberry had advice for other parents.
"Parents aren't raising their children right. You're going to go out there and go shooting at innocent people? You going to jump on no school bus?" Asberry said. "Let me tell you something: I'd beat their butts, made them mind, taught them not to fight each other, and (if) they don't bother anybody else, nobody's going to bother them."
Sherman goes to James Weldon Johnson Academic Career Training Center. Singleton goes to Mattie V. Rutherford Alternative Education Center. They were also on the bus with kids from Grand Park Career Center. All three are considered alternative schools.
"They should not put little innocent kids on the bus with them bad-behind children," Asberry said.
Sherman was sitting in the window seat next to the bus driver's aide Thursday. Singleton was sitting behind her.
Police said the bus driver was picking up students from other schools when Robles fired shots at the bus, hitting the two girls in the head.
"I just hope they catch him, I really do. I just hope they catch him," Asberry said. "He doesn't need to be on the street with somebody else's kid getting hurt."
Duval County School Board police were assigned Friday to follow all buses going to and from Grand Park Center, Mattie V. Rutherford Alternative Education Center, and James Weldon Johnson Academic Career Training Center. Extra officers were also at these schools Friday, as well as grief counselors.
For hours after the shootings, police, some with rifles in hand, searched for blocks around the scene of the gunfire. Police did take two juveniles in for questioning Thursday night but later said they do not think those two were involved in the shooting.
Police asked anyone with information about Robles' whereabouts to call Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.