The young woman whose minivan was sprayed with bullets in Brooklyn, New York, killing her 12-year-old cousin Kade Lewin, still has a bullet lodged in her cheek, her father said.
20-year-old Jenna Ellis remains in the intensive care unit at Kings County Hospital after being shot once in the jaw and once in the stomach, dad Winston Ellis said.
Doctors removed the bullet from her stomach but are waiting to remove the other slug due to infection concerns.
Winston called his daughter “a normal individual, and a family-loving person.”
“She grew up with Kade,” he said of her relationship to his late nephew.
The younger Ellis was in the drivers’ seat on Thursday evening when gunmen approached the vehicle and fired at her, Kade and an 8-year-old relative who managed to evade injury.
Winston said he was “grateful that the worst didn’t happen to the two other occupants.”
“I told Jenna she was lucky because the shooter was trying to execute everyone in the car,” he said.
Jenna, who works at Staples and attends college part time, regained her ability to speak on Saturday evening, according to her father.
But he said he expects her recovery will take several months.
“Jenna is still grieving over the death of her cousin,” said the dad, adding that his daughter “used to help with his homework.”
Kade, who lived in Flatlands with his mother Suzette, was murdered in what may have been a case of mistaken identity, according to police sources — but Ellis said he had not heard anything to that end from the NYPD.
He said spending time with Jenna was an “escape” for young Kade.
“She took care of him. When she leave work, most times, she goes, she fetches Kade … take them to the park, take them to the mall, stop at food places,” Winston recalled.
He added that he had not spoken with Suzette Lewin, Kade’s mother, who was too traumatized to speak during a vigil held Friday at the site of the killing.
“Suzette is traumatized. There’s not much I could say to her at this point in time,” said Ellis. “My primary focus is my immediate child.”
No arrests have been made.
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