A young girl who sparked a national outcry when she was held at gunpoint and handcuffed by police when she was only 11 has passed away.
14-year-old Honestie Hodges tragically died at the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital after she tested positive for coronavirus.
Heartbreaking news of her death was shared on a GoFundMe page set up to help support her family while she was in the hospital in Grand Rapids.
Honestie’s heartbroken grandmother, Alisa Niemer, said the teen had been in intensive care and had no underlying health conditions.
The teen fell ill on her 14th birthday on November 9. According to her family, she was rushed to the hospital when she experienced severe stomach pains.
Honestie tested positive for coronavirus and was instructed to quarantine at home. However, she returned to the hospital when her condition deteriorated and she was placed in intensive care, where she received iron and blood transfusions.
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that I have to tell all of you that my beautiful, sassy, smart loving granddaughter has gone home to be with Jesus,” grandmother Niemer said in an update.
She told WOOD-TV that her granddaughter was ‘happy’ and ‘healthy’ with no underlying health conditions before she tested positive for coronavirus.
“I don’t think we were too terribly concerned at that point,” she expressed. “I mean, we know a lot of people who have had COVID quarantined and they were just fine at the end of the day. So initially we weren’t too concerned.
“There was no way we thought this was ever going to happen. You know (we thought), ‘She is going to get better; she is going to come home and we are going to have a birthday party.’”
It was in 2017 when Honestie made headlines when Grand Rapids police handcuffed her. Her mother could be heard screaming: “She’s 11 years old, sir!” but the officer put her in the back of a patrol car.
Honestie remained handcuffed for several minutes before she was released.
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