The Carver High School senior was shot in bed as gunfire struck the house.
ATLANTA, GA — An 18-year-old high school student is recovering after she was shot while lying in bed when gunfire hit her family’s home in southwest Atlanta, authorities and her family said. The shooting happened late Sunday on McDaniel Street, the night before her birthday.
The teen, Raven Brown, survived but faces a long recovery after the bullet broke bones and damaged her lung, her mother said. Police have not announced an arrest, and investigators have not said whether the shooting was targeted. The case has drawn attention because Brown was inside her home preparing for school when shots fired from outside tore into the house.
Brown’s mother, Nora Houston, said her daughter was in her bedroom when bullets struck the home on McDaniel Street in southwest Atlanta. Houston said a round came through a wall and hit Brown in the back as she lay in bed, just hours before her 18th birthday. “Raven is very traumatized and in a lot of pain. I’m just happy she’s still alive,” Houston said in an interview. Brown told another Atlanta station she had been on an Instagram livestream counting down to her birthday and ended the video moments before gunfire erupted outside. She recalled hearing rapid shots and said it sounded like the shooter “was not stopping.” Brown said she felt a sharp pain, collapsed, and realized she had been hit.
Brown told a local TV station she did not immediately understand she had been shot until she fell and felt numbness in her arm and fingers. She said she ran to her mother’s room and told her she had been hit. Atlanta police officers responded to calls of shots fired late Sunday night, and officers recovered shell casings at the scene, authorities said. Brown was alert and breathing when emergency responders arrived, according to a police account cited in local reporting, and she was taken to a hospital for treatment. Investigators have not publicly identified a suspect or released a description of a vehicle. Family members and neighbors told local reporters that nearby security cameras did not capture clear images of the shooter or shooters.
In updates shared by her family, Brown’s injuries were described as severe but survivable. Houston said Brown suffered a broken shoulder, broken ribs, and a damaged lung. The bullet remained lodged in her chest near a major artery, Houston wrote in a fundraising post, and doctors decided it was too risky to remove it because of its location. “The bullet has to stay in her,” Houston said, adding that the family hopes it does not shift. Brown, a Carver High School senior, plays tennis, flag football, and softball, her family said. Relatives said the sudden violence has shaken their sense of safety at home, with the shooter still at large and no clear motive publicly described by police.
The shooting unfolded as Atlanta officials have pointed to shifting patterns in violent crime across the city. In recent briefings and reports, police leaders have said homicides and shootings have fallen compared with earlier years, while other forms of violence such as aggravated assaults and robberies have remained a concern. Researchers tracking violence in major U.S. cities have also reported declines in homicides in 2025 in many places, including Atlanta, even as gun assaults and other categories vary by city. Those wider trends offer little comfort to families caught in gunfire at home, where investigators must determine whether a house was mistakenly hit, whether someone was targeted, or whether shots were fired recklessly into a neighborhood. In Brown’s case, officials have not said whether anyone else inside the home was injured or whether the gunfire was aimed at a person nearby.
Police have said the investigation remains active and have not announced charges. Investigators typically work to map the path of bullets, collect shell casings, canvass for video, and interview witnesses in the hours and days after a shooting, but authorities have not provided a public timeline for results in Brown’s case. Houston said detectives had not shared any leads with the family in the days after the shooting. “They don’t have any leads right now,” she said, adding that she hoped investigators would have answers soon. In the meantime, Brown has been released from the hospital in at least one account and has spoken publicly about fear and stress after being shot in her own room.
Brown and her mother described a household routine interrupted by sudden gunfire. Brown said she was on the phone and winding down for the night when she heard shots outside, then felt pain and confusion as she tried to stand. Houston said her daughter had been getting ready for school the next day and thinking about her birthday. Brown told a local TV station she now lives with lingering trauma, describing symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress as she considers returning home. “It makes me feel traumatized about going back home,” Brown said in an interview. Houston said the family is focused on healing and covering medical costs as Brown recovers from broken bones and a damaged lung.
As of Sunday, police had not identified a suspect, and the family said they still do not know who fired into the home or why. Brown said she wakes up grateful to be alive and aware that the bullet could have killed her. The next milestone in the case is any public identification of suspects or an arrest as detectives continue reviewing evidence from the scene.
Author note: Last updated February 15, 2026.