The 11-year-old boy who was shot by police in Mississippi after calling 911 to help his mother has revealed that he has haunting visions of both the officer responsible and of himself lying dead in a coffin.
Aderrien Murry is back home recovering after he was shot in the chest by a police officer who had responded to a disturbance call at the home that he shares with his mother Nakala Murry in Indianola, Mississippi.
In an interview with CNN, he spoke out about the lasting trauma of the incident as his family brought a $5m lawsuit for excessive force, negligence, reckless endangerment and civil assault and battery.
“Sometimes, I can see myself laying inside the coffin. Those are my thoughts at night, my only ones,” he said.
“Sometimes I think people are watching me. But my main thought is me dead, inside the coffin.”
The young boy said he also has visions where he can see Indianola Police Officer Greg Capers – the man who pulled the trigger on him that day – “standing inside corners” of dark rooms, “just staring at me”.
“I could have lost my life. All because of you,” he said in a message to the officer calling for his firing.
“I want you terminated for what you did to me.”
It was around 4am on 20 May when the father of one of Ms Murry’s other children showed up at the home “irate”.
When the commotion woke Aderrien, the 11-year-old called 911 to get help.
He told CNN he told the dispatcher that no one was armed inside the home.
When officers arrived on the scene, they shouted for everyone to come out with their hands up.
Aderrien said he did everything he was told to do and was shot by Officer Capers.
“I just tried to follow the police commands but I guess that didn’t work,” he said.
As he lay there believing he was about to die, the 11-year-old boy recalled praying and singing “No Weapon Formed Against Me Shall Prosper”.
He also asked his mother – who was desperately trying to stop the bleeding – to tell his family and his teacher he was “sorry for what he did”.
Aderrien was rushed to hospital and placed placed on a ventilator for a collapsed lung, fractured ribs, and a lacerated liver, before being discharged on 24 May.
The young boy has put his recovery down to “the grace of God” but said he still has difficulties breathing and moving from the incident.
Officer Capers has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into the shooting.
