Police are speaking to an eight-year-old boy in connection with the shooting, which happened at around 5.30pm on Saturday.
Chloe was due to return to hospital yesterday to find out whether she needs surgery on a torn pupil. Doctors said she was lucky not to be permanently blinded by the rubber pellet, because of the close proximity at which it was fired.
Mum Ashley, 35, yesterday said she feared her daughter might never see again.
She said: “She was crying when she came in and when we got in the ambulance the driver was asking her how many fingers he was holding up and she couldn’t see anything.
“It was obvious straight away that she needed hospital treatment. Her eye was totally bloodshot. The blue bit wasn’t blue, it was black. I was very upset and shocked.”
Chloe was taken to Wansbeck General Hospital before being transferred to an eye specialist at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.
She is battling with blurred vision and is confined to the sofa to avoid disturbing the clotting in her eye, which could cause blood to start pouring down her face again. Doctors have told the youngster she may need surgery.
Mrs Laidlaw said: “It means there is light coming in from the tear as well as light coming in through the pupil. So her eye is not reacting to light because it is not bouncing off the back of it.
“She is taking drops to keep her pupil fixed. It should probably heal, but sometimes there could be a little hole still which means she might be operated on.
“She has been very lucky. She could have lost her eye if he had been any closer.”
Chloe has to take eye drops constantly to ease the pain and her mum is being helped with the nursing duties by the schoolgirl’s brothers Ross, 13, Leon, seven, and dad Paul, 36, a dental technician.
The sociable, hard-working youngster has lost her confidence since the ordeal, which seemed to come completely out of the blue.
Mr Laidlaw said: “I’m overprotective sometimes but it is scary when something like that happens. Her eye was a totally different colour. I phoned the police because I thought it was ridiculous.
“These kids must just see it as a game, but these weapons are not toys.”
Saturday’s incident is the latest in a series involving BB guns and other air weapons in the region over the last few years.
Last month Calvin Smith, 19, was jailed for three years at Newcastle Crown Court for using a BB gun to threaten Metro driver Alan Patterson, who had tried to stop him attacking a young couple at Whitley Bay Metro station.
In October, a 13-year-old boy was arrested after three youngsters were hit by pellets fired from a BB gun in the playground of a primary school in Heaton, Newcastle.
Sgt George Cottis of Northumbria Police said: “While some people may think BB bearing guns are little more than toys, the implications of misusing them can be anything but fun. People can be seriously injured.
“Adults and children who possess air weapons or imitation firearms, such as BB guns, in public places are frequently a danger to themselves and others.”
Girl, 11, is shot in eye while playing
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Originally Posted by Arne
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