'I look like a monster:' Eight-year-old boy who was shot in the face tells his family not to let other kids see him

Donald Maiden has been in a Dallas hospital for the last month after being shot in the face just days after turning eight years old

The boy's grandmother says he's recovering with another surgery planned in the next couple weeks - but he's horrified by the way he looks

Brian Cloninger, 46, is accused of shooting Maiden on September 3 while the boy was playing tag outside his apartment complex

A motive has not been revealed

Donald Maiden has been in a Dallas hospital for the last month after being shot in the face just days after turning eight years old.

The boy's grandmother says he's recovering with another surgery planned in the next couple weeks - but he's horrified by the way he looks.

'He don't want the kids to look at his face,' his grandmother, Sharon Locklin, told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth . 'He says, "I look like a monster, granny." I'm like, "No, you don't."'

Donald Maiden has been in a Dallas hospital for the last month after being shot in the face just days after turning eight years old

The boy's grandmother says he's recovering with another surgery planned in the next couple weeks - but he's horrified by the way he looks

Brian Cloninger, 46, is accused of shooting Maiden on September 3 while the boy was playing tag outside his apartment complex. A motive has not been revealed.

Brian Cloninger, 46, is accused of shooting Maiden on September 3

Witnesses reported seeing Cloninger standing beside his pickup truck while the boy was bleeding and when someone asked whether he shot the boy, he allegedly responded, 'Yes, I shot that kid.'

Bleeding profusely, Maiden ran to his mother in their apartment.

'When he ran in I just screamed,' his mother, Latamarin Locklin, told KTVT. 'His mouth was just hanging off and it was just a big hole.

'I just threw him on the couch and laid him in my arms and put pressure on his mouth with the towel.'

Maiden's four-year-old brother was at home during the shooting and now he's in a constant state of terror.



'Every time somebody knocks on the door, he runs to the back of the house. He's afraid,' Locklin said.

Cloninger is being held on a charge of serious bodily injury to a child - a first-degree felony that has a sentence of five to 99 years in prison.

Maiden's grandmother is pushing for another charge pf attempted murder.

Maiden says he hates the hospital and hopes to be home in time for Halloween. He has another surgery scheduled in a couple weeks

Family members, including Maiden's grandmother (third left) want the boy's alleged shooter locked up for life

'We don't want him to be on the streets,' she said. 'No matter what charges is, we want him to stay in.'

Attempted murder is a second-degree felony carring a two-to-20-year prison sentence.

Cloninger has a bond hearing set for October 10.



Maiden hopes to be home by Halloween.

'He told his mom, "If that man hadn't done this to me, I wouldn't be here in the hospital,"' Locklin said. 'He hates the hospital.'



