Father Shot In Face While Holding Newborn Baby, Shooter Remains At Large

Oakland, CA – A father-of-four was holding his five-week-old baby daughter when he was shot in the face last weekend during what his family has described as a possible hate crime.

The attack occurred at a home near Peralta and 7th, where the victim lives with his husband and two children, KABC reported.

The family was getting ready for dinner on Oct. 30 when someone fired at least 10 rounds into their home.

The victim, who was holding his newborn daughter, was hit in the face, KABC reported.

“I just started screaming ‘get down, get down, get down!’” his husband, Jimmie, told the news outlet. “Our daughter, our four-year-old, was crawling towards me and I moved her towards the kitchen and he put the baby on the floor.”

Jimmie said the gunshot knocked his husband’s teeth out.

“I saw blood on the floor, and his teeth, and I was trying to get him to turn over so I could see what had happened to him but he wouldn’t allow me to turn him over,” he told KABC.

The couple’s baby daughter suffered minor abrasions to her face during the attack, but was otherwise uninjured.

The victim was rushed to a local hospital, where he was taken into surgery.

“He can make noises but his jaw is fractured here and his teeth were blown out,” Jimmie told KABC. “Thankfully, from what I understand, is that his tongue wasn’t damaged.”

He underwent a second surgery on Wednesday.

Jimmie said he is struggling to understand the motive for the attack because the couple generally keeps to themselves.

“I’m playing the ‘why’ game right now because we don’t talk to anybody really aside from our immediate neighbors, so I’m trying to figure out if it’s because we’re gay,” he told KABC. “I just can’t believe this is random.”

Jimmie said he hopes witnesses will come forward soon.

“It is hard for me to believe that nobody saw anything, that nobody would know something, even somebody who was in the car that didn’t pull the trigger,” he told KABC. “This is f–ked up! You can’t just do this to people.”

Police have not made any arrests in connection with the attack and would not comment on whether or not the shooting is being investigated as a hate crime, KABC reported.

The family is now looking for a new place to live, according to a fundraising page established to help them in the wake of the attack.

The victim will need additional surgeries in the future, but has been “remarkably adaptive even under the most harrowing of circumstance,” according to the page.

Donors have contributed over $68,000 to the young family so far.