Brooklyn Raises $11K For Family Of 16-Year-Old Shot In The Park

BROOKLYN, NY — A fundraiser set up for a 16-year-old hit by a stray bullet in the park last week has raised nearly $11,000 for the teen's medical expenses.

The GoFundMe, set up with the help of local organizers, had brought in $10,935 for high school senior Kyla-Simone Sobers-Batties by Thursday morning, only 16 hours after it was set up with the help of Sobers-Batties' family.

It comes a week after the Sobers-Batties was shot in the head while hanging out with friends after school in Nicholas Naquan Heyward Jr. Park.

The 16-year-old, two weeks from her 17th birthday, was recently taken out of an induced coma after undergoing surgery to remove bullet fragments from her head, according to the fundraiser.

"With all these unplanned medical expenses, the family needing to take time off work to support and be there for each other and for Kyla through this traumatic experience," organizers wrote. "...These funds will be a way for friends, families and supporters to care for the family through this incredible difficult time."

Sobers-Batties is a senior at Cobble Hill High School of American Studies and had been making Tik Tok videos with her friends moments before the 3 p.m. shooting, organizers said.

She is a straight-A student who plans to study law in college, family said.

“She has a great heart and she cares for others and she’s courageous and through all the pain she is in, she’s still fighting,” said her mother, Nadene Sobers.

As of Thursday, there had been no arrests in the shooting, though police have released photos of three people of interest seen near the park that afternoon.

Kyla's mother said the incident should be a wake up call for the community.

"We can't just keep saying it can't happen to me, because it can," she said. "I never thought that my daughter going to school on Friday morning would end up with my daughter being in the hospital Monday afternoon.

"I want the community to know that to move forward they must work with each other to bring change within the community...The traumatic events that befell my daughter should not happen to another."

Find the GoFundMe for Kyla here.