17-year-old Malayah Voyles said she was trying to break up a fight when an officer’s gun went off, hurting her leg.
FORNEY, Texas — A North Forney High School junior who was injured as police tried to break up a massive brawl involving hundreds of teenagers last week said she was struck by an officer’s bullet in the leg.
Malayah Voyles, 17, said she was trying to break up a fight involving one of her friends in the neighborhood near the school on Dec. 19, when officers arrived.
“It was kind of a flash of heat, it wasn’t necessarily a pain,” Voyles said of the moment she was hit.
A Kaufman Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said in a statement following the shooting, “During efforts to de-escalate the situation, an officer’s weapon discharged, striking the street.”
The statement said fragments injured a deputy, a Forney ISD officer and three juveniles. None had life-threatening injuries, KCSO said.
Hospital records show Voyles was treated for a gunshot wound. The projectile entered her leg and exited through her shin.
The sheriff’s office did not say whether it was one of its deputy’s guns that fired — or how the trigger got pulled. A spokesperson said the Texas Rangers have taken over the investigation. A Department of Public Safety spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
“You shouldn’t pull a gun in a crowd of kids,” said Voyles’ mother Medina Morris. “I’m enraged because as a parent, my job is to protect my daughter.”
The shooting happened on Voyles’ 17th birthday, Morris said. “It’s a birthday she’ll never forget, turning 17 and shot,” she said.
Morris said she’s upset no one from the sheriff’s office has reached out to her, though an investigator from the Texas Rangers has been in contact. She said her daughter bears some responsibility as well.
“Even though she wasn’t physically fighting, I feel like she shouldn’t have been there,” Morris said. “But how can you stop your child from walking from school?”
Voyles is still in pain and has to keep her leg bandaged and elevated. She said she doesn’t know what the fight was about, but knows it wasn’t worth it.
“People make mistakes and you learn from them. This is a lesson learned for me,” she said.