Comedian Rickey Smiley revealed that his daughter Aaryn, 19, was shot three times in Houston over 4th of July weekend. Smiley, 51, said on an episode of the
Rickey Smiley Morning Show, “I wasn’t even going to say anything about this. I’ve been dealing with this all morning, sitting up here with butterflies in my stomach trying to do the show. My youngest daughter was shot last night. She’s in the hospital right now.” Smiley added, “I’m just so angry right now. I go to bed … I woke up to text messages. I’ve got to do the show, I’m trying to focus and trying to do the show. … She’s laying up in the hospital, probably going to have to go through surgery. She’s crying, she’s scared. I can’t get to her. I just hate it.”
Aaryn, who celebrated her 19th birthday just days before the encounter, described the shooting in a series of graphic Instagram Stories: “This is the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me,” she wrote alongside a photo of a bloodstained passenger seat. “I won’t be out of the hospital for a while nor will I be able to walk for a while due to nerve damage. … God. Words can’t describe how grateful i am to be alive right now.”
Smiley later
thanked his fans for their prayers, reassuring his Instagram followers that his daughter “made it out of her operation” and is “doing great.”
