A 9-year-old boy in Bremerton, Wash. wrote a letter apologizing to a classmate who was seriously wounded after a gun discharged from his backpack, lodging a bullet in her backbone.
The handwritten letter was addressed to Amina Bowman, 8, who was released from the hospital on Tuesday. The boy's name has not been made public.
"I'm sorry I hurt you because I brought a gun to school. I did not mean for any to get hurt," the boy wrote. "I wish everyone was all right. I made a bad choice."
Six weeks after being airlifted to Harborview Medical Middle, small milestones mark Amina's recovery.
A taste of soup, those first steps, & a brownie milk shake after being discharged from the hospital are all progress that her sister posts on her Facebook page.
"What a great day!!!" Teri Bowman wrote under a picture of her smiling daughter before they came home from the hospital.
Amina was shot in the coursework of class at Armin Jahr Simple School in Bremerton.
"I made a bad choice. I was one time mournful, terrified & afraid & I did not solve my issue well," the boy told her in his letter. "I will stay away from guns."
The school was put in to immediate lockdown after the incident.
MaryLou Tucker, a parent of a student at the school, said the teacher in Amina's classroom did everything they could. "She had the babies sit, get underneath their desks & then made sure that the babies were accounted for," Tucker said.
The boy's prosecution will be deferred. His sister, Jamie Lee Chaffin, & her fella, Douglas L. Bauer, pleaded not guilty to third-degree assault & illegal possession of a firearm, according to ABC affiliate KOMO.
Amina's parents said she'll likely return to school in the fall.