LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- The community is honoring a little girl who has become the symbol of hope in Louisville.
Erica Hughes,8, was honored as part of the Pride Parade for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and a ceremony in First Gethsemane Baptist Church.
In 2006, Hughes was shot multiple times in her home on Wilson Avenue in Louisville. Her mother Earon Harper was killed. James Quisenberry and Kenneth Williams were convicted of the killing. Police say they were after prescription pills.
Hughes was 2-years-old at the time of the shooting. When officers arrived on the scene, they didn’t wait for an ambulance to arrive. They put her in a squad car and rushed her to the hospital themselves. Those four officers and the doctor from Kosair Children’s Hospital who saved Hughes were honored in the MLK ceremony also.
“He made the call, he said we could not wait. He said if we waited she would not be here today, so we blocked off the streets and [went] as fast as we can go. And the good thing about it is when we checked on her the next day, when the doctor said if we did not do what we decided what we did, she would not be here today,” said Officer Steve Kelsey, one of the officers who saved Hughes.
Hughes is now in the third grade and her favorite subject is reading. She says it makes you smarter.
She is permanently blind in her right eye from the shooting.
