Seliethia Parker always saw her role as protector for her 7-year-old daughter, Alexis Goggins. But it was Alexis who ended up saving her mother's life by using her little body to shield her mom from a fusillade of bullets.
Doctors told Parker that her heroic little daughter, who was shot six times, would never walk or talk again.
But Alexis has surprised people with her gritty toughness. She's not only walking and talking, she's expected to have a full recovery.
"Everybody's still kind of shocked. This is progressing a little bit more than everybody expected," Parker said on "Good Morning America" today. "They said she should fully recover."
Alexis was shot last December when she and her mother were about to get into a car driven by Parker's female friend. Parker's former boyfriend, 29-year-old Calvin Tillie, jumped out of nearby bushes and forced his way into the car.
They drove for several minutes before Parker's friend was able to pull over to a gas station, under the pretense of needing fuel. There she called Detroit police while Parker and Alexis remained in the car.
Parker pleaded desperately with Tillie not to harm her or her daughter, but to no avail.
"Me and Alexis was left in the car with him at gunpoint and he starting shooting," Parker told GMA.
Fearing for her mother's life, Alexis bolted into the car's front seat, crying out, "Don't hurt my mother."
"Alexis jumped over the seat to try and save my life," Parker said.
Using her tiny body as a shield, Alexis blocked six gunshots from hitting her mother. The bullets pierced her right eye, chin, cheek, chest and jaw. When police arrived to the scene, they found Alexis in a pool of blood, curled beneath the steering wheel.
Parker also had been shot in the side of the head and the arm.
Both Parker and her daughter survived, though Alexis endured two painful months in the hospital and underwent six surgeries. Despite doctors' prediction that Alexis may never walk or talk again, Alexis is thriving.
Alexis said she doesn't consider herself a hero and said she wasn't scared during the event.
"I saved my mom," she said and added she loved her mother a lot and didn't want to see her get hurt.
Parker has endless gratitude for her selfless daughter.
"She's my angel and I love her to death," she said.
The man who allegedly attacked the pair is charged with two counts of assault with intent to commit murder. Tillie, a former convict on parole, also was charged with other offenses.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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