The 10-year-old Fort Oglethorpe girl shot through the eye with a BB gun is still at TC Thompson’s Hospital in Chattanooga.
Megan Neal, whose family has released her name via a Facebook page called
“Prayers for Megan,” was shot in her relative’s Chickamauga home Thursday, Aug. 26, in what appears to be an accident, according to Walker County sheriff Steve Wilson.
A single BB gun pellet traveled “through the tear duct,” according to the Facebook page, eventually lodging it-self in the back of her brain close to her brain stem.
“The CT scan does show brain damage but they do not know the extent right now,” the Facebook page explains. Megan is still on the ventilator, and though doctors are hopeful that she will soon be able to breathe on her own, she may need a tracheotomy soon if that does not happen. She is apparently able to open her eyes a small amount and responds to her family’s voices and queries.
In the week or so since the Facebook page has been created, it has garnered more than 1,200 fans. Hundreds of prayers and get-wells are posted on the page’s “wall.” One family, which appears to be related to the girl, even posted that they set up an account in Megan’s name at Bank of Chickamauga for well-wishers to donate and help offset her undoubtedly increasing hospital bills.
Sheriff Wilson stressed that although the incident appears to be an accident, “the investigation’s not over yet so I can’t say that.”
Even though the 9-year-old male cousin who was with Megan Neal at the time of the shooting was the one who discharged the BB gun, the sheriff’s department has yet found no reason to believe it was intentional.
“The BB gun was in the closet of the dining room and they were in there working on their homework,” said Wil-son. Asked why the young male cousin opened the closet at all, Wilson said “I think there were coca colas or soft drinks in the closet and he was going to get one of those and that’s why he was going for the closet in the first place.”
The Walker County Sheriff’s Office will spend approximately another week conducting interviews in this case before turning the results over to the district attorney’s office for review. If any charges come out, it will be at that time.
