Seven-year-old Lakeyia Mumford has a scar on her chin, a reminder of the bullet that whizzed through her extended family's Dorchester home.
But Lakeyia said yesterday that the bullet might have killed her if her 11-year-old aunt, Tamara Mair, hadn't shoved her out of the way as the two practiced dancing.
"She tried to push me down so I wouldn't get hurt," said Lakeyia, still wearing her hospital bracelet, her chin gleaming with ointment. "She saved my life. . . . I could have got hit right here in my eye, or it could have went through."
Tamara said she shoved her niece from the hallway into the dining room when she realized there was danger. "You could tell it was a bullet," she said . "When it came through the wall it was smoky."
The bullet, having grazed Lakeyia, went through Tamara's side. "I felt really dizzy, and I fell to the floor," she recalled. "And, like, it was stinging, and it made me move around a lot."