Paralyzed Girl Still Forgives Man Who Shot Her
NEW YORK – Monday's segment of CBS's The Early Show featured the story of one girl who has shown the nation a glimpse of what true forgiveness looks like.
Reliving the tale of 7-year-old Kai Leigh Harriott, CBS reporters told of how the then-5-year-old girl gave her plea of forgiveness to a man who paralyzed her for life.
The family hopes that those who watch it, especially Christians, can learn from her heroic example.
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"It's kind of hard (to forgive)," Kai told the Early Show reporters, "but as soon as you do it, it's not that hard anymore."
Four years ago, at the age of 3, young Kai was playing on her porch in Dorchester, Mass., with her sister, Aja, when 26-year-old Anthony Warren of Hyde Park fired three gunshots into the air outside the three-decker to scare two women who lived on the first floor after an argument.
Aja, who had a bullet nearly miss her face, grabbed her younger sister and ran inside. When Kai asked her sister to flip her over, the eldest sibling found a pool of blood on her backside.
A bullet had shattered the three-year-old's spine, keeping her alive but leaving her without feeling from the waist down.
Officers later arrested Warren, but it took about three years for the case to reach the courts.
The paralyzed child, who was five then, attended the hearing of her own will, directly speaking to the culprit while on the stand.
"I forgive you Anthony Warren," spoke the youth. "What you did to me was wrong, but I still forgive you."
The selfless act touched the heart of the defendant so much that he changed his original plea of "not guilty" to "guilty."
The event has also helped strengthen the mother of Kai, Tonya David, who has also not held a grudge against the shooter.
"I've never had anger," she explained to CBS News. "I don't know why I was given this cup to drink, but I never had anger for him."
The grieved mother also gave her best wishes to culprit, approaching him after the verdict that sentenced him 13 to 15 years in jail, hugging him, and telling him that God had given him a second chance and that he should take it.
She is also not worried about her daughter. She believes whole-heartedly that God will make a miracle healing for the now wheelchair-stricken child.
"You believe that she's going to walk again?" asked the CBS reporter.
"Oh, I know it," concluded the mother.
David has also created a website, She Shall Walk Again, which tells her daughter's story as well as how to support her and learn about the life of forgiveness.
On the web: SheShallWalkAgain.org.
