Alexis Goggins is both one heroic and one very lucky little girl. Alexis Goggins was shot six times when she defended her mother from an ex-boyfriend shooting at her.

Dramatic recordings of two 911 emergency calls and police dispatches
show police help was delayed the night 7-year-old Alexis Goggins saved
her mother’s life by throwing herself in the path of a gunman’s rage.

The
recordings, obtained by The Detroit News through the Freedom of
Information Act, show a 4-minute gap between the first call for help
and when a police officer was dispatched.

A city spokesman
denied there was any real delay, but a review of transcripts shows that
if an officer had been sent right away, he might have arrived minutes
before — instead of after — the shooting.

Not good, eh? It’s possible that Alexis Goggins would never have been shot at all:

The recordings include two desperate calls for help that end in
frustration for a woman trying to stall the would-be gunman who was
holding Alexis Goggins and her mother, Selietha Parker, 30, at gunpoint
shortly after midnight on Dec. 2, at a gas station on Seven Mile.

Calvin
Tillie, 29, is accused of kidnapping the girl, her mother and a friend
who had come that night to drive them to a warm home. The furnace at
Parker’s home stopped working. Tillie is set to undergo an examination
for mental competency in 36th District Court on Feb. 14.

"What
is taking so long?" Aisha Ford, 29, yelled before being told by the
operator that police didn’t have a car available to send. After Ford
dropped the phone, a gas station attendant picked it up and tried to
convey the urgency of the situation when the shooting began.

"Now,
now he’s shooting," Mohammad Alghazali said over the sounds of
screaming in the background. "He shoot her right now. I hear the gun.
Oh s—! He shoot the lady too."

After her mother was struck by
two bullets, the girl hurled herself into the front seat between her
mother and the gunman — where she was shot six times at point-blank
range.

Alexis and her mother survived, but at great cost. The
girl lost her right eye and has undergone six surgeries to repair brain
damage and reconstruct her shattered arm. She remains at Children’s
Hospital, but is no longer in life-threatening condition.

That was a few weeks ago. Now the news about Alexis Goggins is that she’s recovering:

Nearly three months ago Alexis Goggins filled her days playing with
dolls and having tea parties when she wasn’t in school. Now the
7-year-old is learning to cope with physical and occupational therapy
sessions each week as she works to recover from multiple gunshot wounds
after trying to defend her mother.

"Our life has been flipped
upside down. But remarkably Alexis still has the same great spirit,"
her mother Seliethia Parker, 32, said Wednesday. "She’s my angel."

On
Dec. 2, Parker was held at gunpoint by former boyfriend Calvin Tillie
shortly after midnight at a gas station on Seven Mile. When Tillie
began shooting, Alexis threw herself between the gunman and her mother.
The first-grader, who was shot six times, lost her right eye and has
undergone multiple surgeries, was hailed as a hero.

In fact, Alexis Goggins has been released from hospital:

She was released from Michigan’s Children’s Hospital Feb. 6.

"I’m
happy to be out of the hospital," a soft-spoken Alexis told The Detroit
News Wednesday. "I like getting to play with my cousins."

When
she’s not watching Disney shows like "That’s So Raven" or "Hannah
Montana" with her cousins or eagerly helping around the house, Alexis
has back-to-back doctor’s appointments, Parker said.

Alexis,
who is learning disabled, is familiar with therapy. She has had
epileptic seizures and a stroke but it’s nothing like her current
schedule, her mother said.

The AP report makes clear hopw bad Alexis Goggin’s injuries were:

Alexis Goggins climbed aboard a special bicycle and maneuvered
through hospital hallways, beginning the months of physical therapy she
needs to recover from six gunshot wounds.

To many people, the
soft-spoken 7-year-old is a hero after she threw herself across her
mother just as a gunman was about to shoot the woman in an SUV.

"An angel is what I call her," Seliethia Parker said of her daughter.

After
more than two months in the hospital and six surgeries, Alexis was
recently released. She returns twice a week for physical therapy.

The
young girl bears several scars from the Dec. 2 shooting, including a
long, thin surgical line stretching from one side of her hairline to
the other. Her right eye, which was blinded in the attack, has also
been removed.

During rehabilitation, she rides a bicycle designed to be pedaled with a person’s hands and plays hand-eye coordination games.

"I’ll be good for therapy," Alexis promised her mother before bounding back to the games.