A Bronx mom celebrating her PhD graduation saw her day of joy turn to horror when she learned her teen daughter was struck in the face by a stray bullet.
“I was awarded during the ceremony and it was the biggest achievement of my life, you know, proving to people that in spite of everything, you do exist, and you can do it,” grieving mom Jennifer Talbot told The Post Sunday, one day after her 17-year-old daughter was critically wounded in Baychester.
“But a day for celebration became a day of my worst nightmare.”
Talbot’s daughter was one of five people shot in a gang-related burst of gunfire around 5:30 p.m. at a basketball tournament near Haffen Park in Baychester. A 32-year-old man died, and three others were wounded, police sources said.
Talbot said the teen had been upset that she wasn’t able to make it to watch her mom officially receive her PhD in mental health and psychology, but called her throughout the day to check in.
She was at a post-graduation gala in Connecticut when she got the heartbreaking news.
“When I get there at the hospital, I see my daughter on a hospital bed with a [tracheostomy tube], half her head shaved off, a bullet lodged in her eye with a patch, and her head swollen twice the size,” Talbot said. “They were telling me that I may be having to adjust myself to say goodbyes.
“But, so to God’s grace and prayer and everything else, they called me this morning and told me they want to give her a blood transfusion,” she added.
Talbot earned her degree from Heart Bible International University and said the girl called her seven times “just to see how the ceremony was going.
“She felt bad because she didn’t get to come, and I kept telling her, ‘You should be here,’” she recalled. “But I told her I couldn’t finish speaking to you because I was in the middle of graduation.”
Talbot said it was the last time she spoke to her daughter before the shooting.
The Post is withholding the teen’s name because of her age.
Police said four suspects were taken into custody but charges have not been announced.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona
Read the full article here
