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total hearts received for Moments That Survive

Malasia Howell

January 15, 2021, 4:20 p.m. I had just turned 21 in November. My mom left for work early, so I had to meet my grandparents with my two-year-old brother. I broke up an argument between my brother and his girlfriend. He took the keys to the car and threw them in the woods, and he looked for them when she left.

After getting dressed, I was heading to the back door to get my shoes when bullets ripped through the house. Standing in the kitchen, not realizing I’d been shot in the stomach but feeling a burning pain in my side, I turned around and jumped on my brother, covering him from the bullets. After the noise stopped, I let my brother up to make sure he was not hit. When I tried to get up, I was in so much pain and saw blood on the floor under me. I just knew I was going to die because it was where all your important organs are, but I survived with a bullet that’s still on my side, a centimeter from my abdominal wall. I got out of the hospital on the 17th. #StoptheGunViolence

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