Mother Of Teen Shooting Victim Pleads To The Public For Info

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- The photograph snapped by his mother Tuesday morning shows 13-year-old Eric Watson at Nicklaus Children's Hospital, back from the brink of death.

"Today was the first time we put him in the shower, and we're just blessed to still have him here and for him to be making the progress that he's making so quickly," Eric's mother Latoya Morland told CBS4's Gary Nelson.

The teenager, on the small side for a 13-year-old, was shot by who knows who nine nights ago on a street in Naranja in Southwest Miami-Dade where he was playing with friends in a yard by his grandmother's house. Three slugs ripped through the boy's torso, piercing vital organs. His mother struggled to compose herself remembering seeing her son, who doctors said might die.

"I couldn't breathe. My legs collapsed," his mom recalled.

She refused to accept doctors' assessment that her son had a 50/50 chance of survival. She credits prayer and faith in God for his survival.

It would be midweek, however, before physicians, after multiple surgeries for massive internal injuries said Eric would make it.

"I no longer cried tears of hurt. The only tears I have had since then were tears of joy," Eric's mother said.

Eric attended the private Bee Academy in Cutler Bay where faculty know him as a caring, fun-loving child.

"He was very polite," said the school's Assistant Director, Leotis Cook. "He was always helpful, he was able to assist anybody in any way he could. He liked to tell jokes. A very good kid."

Police know no more today than they did the day after Eric was shot, when acting Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said, "We don't have any leads on this. All we know is he, a child 13 years old, was outside playing with this friends."

Police are convinced Eric wasn't the target. They don't know how many assailants came down the street, if they were in a car, or if so what kind.

"This is what we're asking for the public to help us with," Eric's mother said Tuesday. "Even a little thing, something that might seem little to you, could be the key that solves the case."

She wants her son's attacker or attackers captured, knowing how many children have been gunned down on the streets. Just the day before Eric was shot, a seven-year-old boy was killed in a driveby shooting in Richmond Heights.

"There's plenty of families grieving because their children didn't make it," Eric's mother said. "We've cried, we're joyful, we're grateful because Eric's still here."

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.