Georgia police arrest driver in hit-and-run incident injuring 9-year-old girl
Police in Georgia arrested a man who was allegedly driving the vehicle that struck a 9-year-old girl who was playing in her yard.
The suspect, Gabriel Jabri Fordham, 28, faces multiple charges including hit and run, serious injury by vehicle and reckless driving, according to jail records in DeKalb County, Georgia. Fordham was arrested Tuesday.
The incident gained national attention after surveillance footage captured the incident last week. The video shows kids playing in their yard in a suburban neighborhood when a black car speeds down the street before hitting LaDerihanna Holmes, 9, and a friend.
The video later shows the driver and a passenger fleeing the scene while others try to help the girls.
“It was cold. It was very cold,” Charlette Bolton, LaDerihanna’s mother, said at a news conference. “I know they thought she was dead.”
Fordham's attorney, Ryan Williams, told TV station WSB his client was trying to fight off a carjacker inside his car when the incident happened.
"Someone jumped in his vehicle with a pistol, put the gun to his face, made him drive, and the whole time my client was driving, he was kind of directing the path," Williams told WSB.
April 2: 'They thought she was dead': Georgia police identify driver who fled after hitting 9-year-old
Police say LaDerihanna suffered multiple injuries including a skull fracture and a broken pelvis. Her friend, Alayshia Phillips, 11, sustained a foot injury.
A GoFundMe set up for the family has raised more than $47,000 to help with medical expenses.
Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY; The Associated Press. Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia police arrest driver in hit-and-run incident injuring 9-year-old girl
