HOUSTON — A little girl who's been the focus of countless prayers is out of ICU and out of a coma two months after being shot in a Houston road rage case.
Nine-year-old Ashanti Grant can't walk or talk yet but she's awake, alert and responsive, her father told KHOU 11 News reporter Melissa Correa Monday.
"She’s doing pretty good," Frank Grant said. "It looks pretty bright for her."
His baby girl is able to hold his hand now as he sits beside the hospital bed she's been laying in for nearly 10 weeks.
"She is a miracle baby. She’s come a long way. She’s turned doubters into believers," Frank said.
Ashanti's family never lost faith that she would pull through, even when doctors weren't sure. People all over the country have been praying for the little girl with the big smile.
RELATED: More coverage of Ashanti Grant case
Ashanti's dad said she's still got a tough road ahead as she relearns all of the other things the man who put a bullet in her brain took from her.
They're hoping to move her to TIRR soon so she can start rehab.
"She still needs, still needs help," Frank said. "I just got to keep being strong for her because I know she needs me. We need each other. She’s my strength and I’m her strength."
What happened the night Ashanti Grant was shot?
While Ashanti will have to learn to walk again, the gunman who shot her still walks free. A $30,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest and conviction and someone out there knows something.
It happened sometime after 9 p.m. on Tuesday, February 8, on the Southwest Freeway between the Beltway and the Fondren exits.
Ashanti was in the car with her family headed to a grocery store on when police said a man in a white pickup shot at their vehicle.
Her uncle, who was in the car that night, said Frank stopped at a light under a Beltway 8 overpass and was waiting to turn left onto the northbound Highway 59 feeder road.
As the light turned green, Kevin said he remembers a white GMC Denali truck cutting off the family in the dedicated turning lane. He said the truck came from the lane farthest from the left side of the street before it took a sharp right, nearly hitting another vehicle along the way.
Kevin said Ashanti’s dad let the truck pass before speeding up to enter the highway.
“Like he was racing us or something,” Kevin told us in February. “First thing I told my brother was, 'That dude's crazy. Let’s get away from him.' Because I know we got kids in the car.”
Kevin said, the next thing he knew, someone was shooting at the back of the family’s SUV. It was a dangerous escalation that he said happened so fast.
“He was just shooting a lot."
Kevin said Ashanti was sitting in the back seat watching cartoons when she was struck by a bullet.
The gunman, a Hispanic man between 20 and 30 years old, was driving a 2017 GMC Denali.
If you have any information, please call Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-521-4600 or the Houston Police Department.
"I just pray and hope that someone does the right thing and gives this person up and not try to help this person run from the police," Frank said. "They’ve done something and they need to answer to what they’ve done to an innocent kid.
Mountain of medical bills
Family members describe Ashanti as a child who writes love letters to her family, loves princesses and still believes in fairy tales. Videos shared with KHOU 11 by her grandmothers show the sweet and sassy sides of her personality.
Ashanti's 4th grade classmates in Alvin ISD haven't forgot about her. They sent a hand-made poster with messages of encouragement that's hanging in her hospital room.
"I just continue to ask Houston to do what they’ve been doing. Keep praying and believing," Frank told us.
Meanwhile, the hospital bills keep piling up and a GoFundMe account has been set up to help the family.