‘I’m not in a gang. I’m 12’: Boy speaks after surviving Nashville drive-by shooting

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A 12-year-old is now out of the hospital after being hurt in what Metro Nashville Police believe was a drive-by shooting early Friday morning.

Middle schooler Joshua Smith says he was lying in bed when bullets started flying through the windows and his wall. At first, he thought it was fireworks until he felt a searing pain.

Previous story: Gunfire strikes boy inside home in Trinity Hills

“It was just scary seeing all the blood coming out my foot,” Joshua said. “I was just thinking, ‘I really just got shot.’ And I was just thinking about who would do this.”

Joshua said before this, he’d never broken a bone. The worst injury he’d had was a sprained ankle. He said lessons he’d learned in school kicked into gear.

“I really thought some of my toes were gone. I could not see at all,” he said. “But I was taught to get on the floor and stay down. Stay down so I don’t get hit by a bullet.”

Joshua crawled to his mom’s room before being taken to the hospital. As for who did this or if it was targeted – the family has no idea.

“I’m not in a gang. I’m 12. I don’t associate with any drugs or anything like that,” he said. “I don’t even talk about people.”

Police say more than 15 bullets hit the house at about 2 a.m. The family says at the time of the shooting, there were five people home including a 6-month-old baby. No arrests have been made.

“This is what guns do when they’re not in the right hands of the right people,” Joshua’s mom Dominic Hardy said.

They said although it’s going to be a long road to recovery, they’re thankful no one was more seriously injured.

“I am grateful to say that my kids are still here today,” Hardy said, “He’s a very tough cookie, but it’s a process like I said. I’m gonna need help with trying to find counseling and family counseling because he wasn’t the only one that was in the house.”

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