An 11-year-old girl left with horror facial injuries after a shooting outside Woolworths has been released from hospital and returned home two months later.
Phoenix Newitt was sitting in a car with her mother Sarah, uncle and four-year-old cousin in Deloraine northern Tasmania on August 29, when she was hit in the face by bullet fragments.
She was flown to The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne but has now been discharged, with her mother telling the ABC her daughter is doing well.
Phoenix Newitt, 11, (pictured) after two months is out of hospital and has returned home
Phoenix (pictured) was sitting in her mum’s car when bullet fragments hit her in the face
‘It’s overwhelming that Phoenix is still Phoenix because that is the main thing that I was scared of — that she wasn’t going to be the same little girl, but I believe that she is,’ Sarah Newitt told ABC.
The 11-year-old spent five days in an induced coma and underwent a number of surgeries to remove bullet fragments that had lodged in her brain, heart and lungs.
Police allege the shooting stemmed from a fight between Ms Newitt and another woman, Brianna Mansell, about an hour beforehand.
Ms Newitt claimed the fight at a local Woolworths, which gave her two black eyes and her opponent a bite mark, started when she smiled at a third woman Ms Mansell didn’t like.
‘She hit me over 10 times to the face, she just would not stop. She hit me and pushed me to the ground, I hit my head. Phoenix, the little darling, said ‘don’t worry mum i’m videotaping it’,’ she claimed.
Police were reviewing the footage allegedly showing the fight as they investigate what happened next.
Phoenix Newitt, 11, (pictured) suffered injuries after bullet fragments lodged in her face as she sat in a car in Deloraine, Tasmania
Police allege shooting stemmed from a fight between Ms Newitt and another woman at a local Woolworths, which gave her two black eyes
Ms Newitt told police the fight started when she smiled at a third woman that Brianna Mansell (pictured with her boyfriend Nathan Richard Campbell) didn’t like
Police alleged Campbell, 25, fired at their car from about 50 metres away with a small-calibre rifle, hitting Phoenix
Ms Newitt and her brother Zack drove to Ms Mansell’s house on Stagg Court to confront her, with Phoenix and Mr Newitt’s four-year-old boy in the back seats.
Police alleged Ms Mansell’s boyfriend Nathan Richard Campbell, 25, fired on their car from about 50 metres away with a small-calibre rifle, with bullet fragments hitting Phoenix.
Nathan Richard Campbell of Deloraine pleaded not guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm and recklessly discharging a firearm and will appear in court later this month.
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