JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 16-year-old convicted felon was arrested Thursday in the shooting of a 12-year-old boy.
Jacksonville police said Josie Lewis shot Odell Jones in the leg outside Jones' home on Prospect Street in Northwest Jacksonville.
Jones' mother, Victoria Jackson, drove him to UF Health Jacksonville, and he was released Thursday night. Jackson said her son was on pain medication and resting.
She said she was in the house when the shooting happened and heard the shot.
"I heard like a pop and I jumped up: 'Let me go tell the kids to stop popping firecrackers out here,'" Jackson said. "I run in my kitchen to go to the room, and I met my daughter in the kitchen. She's like, 'Momma, my brother's shot. Momma, my brother's shot.' I'm like, 'Girl, you kidding. Them fire crackers I'm hearing.'"
Jackson ran outside and found her son bleeding in the grass.
"I was thinking like, 'Oh my God, I hope he didn't get hit in the chest or the head. Please, God just be with me,'" Jackson said.
She said the bullet hit her son's knee, then went through his leg and is still lodged near his ankle. Doctors do not want to remove it because it's near a growth plate.
Lewis, a friend of Jones' brother, was convicted last month of strong arm robbery. Police said he also had an outstanding warrant from Clay County for burglary and grand theft in which investigators said he stole more than $28,000 in electronic equipment, computers, jewelry and cash.
Jones said Lewis was his friend and called him "little brother." He said he thinks the shot was an accident.
Investigators think the shooting was intentional and arrested Lewis. He was booked into the Duval County jail in Thursday's shooting on charges of aggravated battery, possession of a firearm by convicted felon and discharging a firearm in public.
"What could he be thinking having a gun around someone you call your little brother, you know what I'm saying?" Jackson said. "You don't play with guns. I just don't know where his mind was."