Shooting Victim's Mom Has No Animosity

As Sammy Tate remained in Yale-New Haven Hospital Tuesday, suffering from a bullet wound, his cousin was over in the courthouse, accused of firing the shot that wounded the 9-year-old.
 
Matrell Wright, 18, was arrested Monday and appeared in court Tuesday, wearing shackles. His family was there to support him, including Sammy’s mom.
 
The shooting was an accident, they said. Wright was just playing with a gun and never meant to shoot his cousin.
 
“As far as I know, Matrell … he found a gun, or somebody gave him a gun. He was playing with it and it went off, and Sammy got hit,” Yonsha Solomon, Sammy’s mother, said.
 
She said she has no animosity toward her cousin.
 
“He’s sorry. Like, he’s real remorseful. He was worried about was Sammy all right and was I gonna hate him. No I don’t’ hate him. I love him,” she said.
 
Sammy, she said, is improving.
 
“He’s fine. I mean, considering what he’s been through, he’s doing OK. He’s talking, he could talk, he could communicate, he could write down what he wanted to say,” she said.
 
Tuesday, Sammy’s condition was upgraded from critical to serious, the Associated press reports.
 
The shooting happened sometime around 10:30 p.m. Monday in a Batter Terrace residence. Sammy was immediately taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery.
 
Wright had gotten the gun from someone nicknamed “Wookie” and had been twirling it inside this family home when it went off, the judge said in court.
 
But Wright had fled, police said, and they searched for weapons, finding two in the back yard.
 
Wright was running to turn himself in, Solomon said.
 
Early Monday morning, New Haven Detectives arrested Wright and charged him with carrying a pistol without a permit, unlawful discharge, assault and risk of injury to a minor.
 
Wright's bond has been set at $500,000.