Teen missed graduation after being shot, receives high school diploma in hospital bed

CLEVELAND (WOIO/Gray News) – A 17-year-old girl was unable to attend her high school graduation in Ohio after being shot in the chest on Mother’s Day.

Family members told WOIO Rai’nell Peterson was celebrating with friends before the graduation, and someone at the party started shooting.

According to police, she and another teen were shot.

“She wasn’t even the target. It was somebody else they were looking for,” Peterson’s grandmother Victoria Morris said.

Peterson, who is recovering at a Cleveland area hospital, received her diploma Thursday while lying in her hospital bed.

“I cry about every day since she’s been here. Right now, she is in so much pain. To see her in pain brings me pain,” Peterson’s dad Darnell Peterson said.

The recent high school graduate wants to work in the medical field, but her dad said she may have a different calling.

“She wants to write her book. She said she can be an activist about this,” Darnell Peterson said of the recent shooting.

Family members said they hope Rai’nell Peterson will be discharged from the hospital next week.

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