UPDATE: Georgia Police Arrest Driver Who Crashed Into 9-Year-Old Girl And Drove Off

UPDATE: 

DeKalb police have arrested the driver responsible for the hit-and-run accident that sent 9-year-old LaDerihanna Holmes to the hospital with a fractured skull, broken pelvic bone, several cuts and other internal injuries.

According to CNN, Gabriel Fordham, 28, turned himself into the police on Tuesday, but his lawyer said the accident was not his fault.

“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,” Ryan Williams said.

Fordham has been charged with failure to maintain lane, failure to stop at a stop sign, reckless driving, hit and run and serious injury by vehicle.

Williams says his client is “apologetic and he wants to help this family get closure to this issue.”

No word on whether the police are looking into Fordham’s carjacking claims.

Remember, last Friday Fordham plowed his car into a 9-year-old girl playing in her front yard. He seriously injured the child and sped off before authorities could get to the scene.

LaDerihanna will have to learn to walk again.

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(Original Article)—Georgia police are currently in search of a man who plowed his car into a 9-year-old girl playing in her front yard. The suspect seriously injured the child and sped off before authorities could get to the scene.

Luckily LaDerihanna Holmes is alive, but was in critical condition when she got to the hospital.

“(The car) hit her head-on, and it didn’t just hit her, it knocked her through a brick wall,” the family’s attorney L. Chris Stewart said at a press conference held on Monday.

Adding, “It is an absolute miracle that she survived this.”

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, last Friday, the fourth grader was outside enjoying the warm weather in front of her DeKalb home when out of nowhere a 2017 Ford Fusion barreled past a stop sign, flew in the air right into Holmes’ striking her.

Both the driver and passenger ran from the scene, leaving the car lodged into the house.

Apparently, the hit-and-run was caught on surveillance tape.

Her mother, Charlette Bolton, said her daughter had stayed home sick from school that day and had begged her to let her go outside to get some fresh air in the early evening. Now, Bolton says she regrets that decision.

‘When she kept nudging the bed, I finally said, ‘OK LaDerihanna, but just stay on the porch,’” she said.

When Bolton heard the crashing sound, she rushed out and found her little girl pinned in between the car,  bleeding from her head and unresponsive. They gave her CPR, but later learned that the accident left little LaDerihanna with a fractured skull, broken pelvic bone, several cuts and other internal injuries.

The doctors believe LaDerihanna will have to learn to walk again, but thankfully has regained her speech and started physical therapy on Monday. However, its unclear if the 9-year-old will ever be able to cheer or dance again, the AJC noted.

Holmes’ family took the media over the weekend to beg for the two involved in the accident to turn themselves into the police.

“They were right there among us,” Bolton said at the press conference. “They didn’t look for my baby. They didn’t look down for my baby.”

Holmes father, Derryl Holmes, who rushed his daughter to the ER after the accident,  said he was “hurt” by what happened to his daughter.

“I’m angry. I’m hurt,” Holmes, the father, said. “Because for them to just walk away … they know they hit my child.”

DeKalb authorities said they don’t have anyone in custody, but they have “good leads” and believe the car may have been stolen by two teenagers.

A GoFundMe page to help the family cover LaDerihanna’s mounting medical expenses. It’s raised nearly $44,000 so far.

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UPDATE: Georgia Police Arrest Driver Who Crashed Into 9-Year-Old Girl And Drove Off  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com