7-Year-Old Girl Puts Herself Between Mom and Bullets

Kelly Mills — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:33:00 GMT

Hey, it's time to get weepy with the Derby. See, sometimes as parents we can barely write about the stuff in the news because we use up too many tissues and risk electrocution from tears on our laptops. But let's give it a go anyway: Selitha Parker dated Calvin Tillie for a few months before breaking it off. But Tillie kept calling and bothering Parker, and on December 2, when Parker and her 7-year-old daughter Alexis Goggins climbed into the SUV of a friend on the way to the friend's mom's birthday party, Tillie jumped into the backseat of the vehicle next to Alexis. He pulled a gun and forced them to drive around, until the friend convinced Tillie she needed to stop for gas and called 911 with the station attendant.

When she and the attendant heard shots they ran back to the vehicle, and saw Alexis curled up under the steering wheel in a pool of blood. She had leaped from the backseat to the front seat, shielding her mother with her body, saying, "Don't hurt my mother!" Six bullets hit Alexis, piercing her eye and striking her jaw and chin. She was blinded in that eye, and has undergone three operations since the shooting. Parker was struck with two slugs, and while seriously wounded, she was well enough to be released from the hospital a few days later. Tillie was arrested at the scene.

Parker said, "My baby is just an angel to her mother. I thought as the mother, I'd be saving my child. I never thought my daughter would be saving me." At Alexis' special education classroom at school (she has learning disabilities, suffered a stroke before age 1 and has epilepsy) classmates named a stuffed toy "Hero" and put it in her seat because they didn't want her chair to remain empty. Her teacher showed off her recent progress in writing letters in a journal. Parker's cousin said, "I know she can do it. There's no stopping Alexis. It may take her a little longer now because of this. But she is a fighter."

Feel free to sob without restraint.

Associated Press photo by Carlos Osorio

Dad Saves His Three Kids From House Fire, Then is Jailed For Drugs

Karen Murphy — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 14:21:00 GMT

Oh, the horrible irony: Chuck Talley of High Ridge, Missouri, raced through his burning house at 5 am Wednesday to grab his little girls (ages five and two) after handing his two-month old to wife Jessica, then got all of them safely out the door while the house was consumed by the fire. Not long afterward, Chuck was arrested and jailed for possession of a weapon, a sawed-off shotgun belonging to Jessica's father. (And for possession of some drug paraphernalia, but who's counting? The man saved his family, for crying out loud!)

I'm thinking that the High Ridge authorities could have cut the man a little slack, you know? After all, his house was destroyed (not to mention that whatever drugs he might have had probably also went up in flames). And he saved his little girls! Not many dads get the opportunity to do that. Chuck was released not long afterward, but still.

Strollerderby : saving family

7-Year-Old Girl Puts Herself Between Mom and Bullets

Dad Saves His Three Kids From House Fire, Then is Jailed For Drugs