This story originally published on Feb. 4, 1995, one year after Tashay Campbell was shot.
Practically everyone says Tashay Campbell is doing great. Better than anyone might expect, considering what the 7-year-old has been through this past year:
Her face shattered by a gunman’s bullet.
Her mouth turned to pulp and bone.
One, two, three, four corrective surgeries.
And now her father, in jail, charged with murdering a motorist.
But Chantelle Mullins, Tashay’s 26-year-old mother, insists: “She’s doing fine. Real good, except.”
Except?
“Except she never talks about the shooting,” Mullins said.
“And she’s afraid to go outside at night.
“And she still has nightmares.About once or twice a month. I hear them. I say, `Come in here with me.’ She lays right back down and goes to sleep.”
One year ago today, the innocent life view of a child was blasted away when a stray 9mm bullet pierced her chin, pulverized her jaw and exploded out her right cheek.
The story of Tashay’s ordeal the night of Feb. 4, 1994 – meant to illustrate the human cost of random violence – also captured the sympathies of the community.