The suspect in a hit and run crash which saw a nine-year-old girl who was playing in her front yard seriously injured has been arrested.

Gabriel Fordham, 28, turned himself in on Tuesday but claims he was fighting off an armed carjacker inside the car when the incident occurred, WSB reports.

His attorney, Ryan Williams, said: 'Someone jumped in his vehicle with a pistol, put the gun to his face, made him drive, and the whole time my client was driving, he was kind of directing the path.'

LaDerihanna Holmes was outside her home in Lithonia, Georgia with another girl around 7pm on Friday when the car careered straight toward them.

Distressing video shows the second girl running off in one direction after looking back and seeing the oncoming vehicle.

LaDerihanna runs in the other direction, but the black sedan blows past a stop sign and jumps the curb before running her over and slamming into her home.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Gabriel Fordham turned himself in on Tuesday but claims he was fighting off an armed carjacker when the incident occurred. He has since been charged with failure to maintain lane, failure to stop at a stop sign, reckless driving, hit and run and serious injury by vehicle

Surveillance footage captured the horrific moment the driver plowed into LaDerihanna

Surveillance footage captured one of the two suspects fleeing from the scene, exiting from the car's passenger side and running across the front lawn as LaDerihanna's family rushed over to help her.

Fordham has since been charged with failure to maintain lane, failure to stop at a stop sign, reckless driving, hit and run and serious injury by vehicle.

LaDerihanna (pictured in the hospital after the crash) sustained a skull fracture with laceration and a broken pelvic bone in three places

His attorney says he is 'apologetic and he wants to help this family get closure to this issue'.

Fordham has faced previous charges including aggravated battery, aggravated assault, burglary, forgery and probation violation, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

LaDerihanna was taken to the hospital in critical condition. She sustained a skull fracture with laceration and a broken pelvic bone in three places, according to the family's GoFundMe page.

Her right heart valve was also leaking. Chris Stewart's, the family's lawyer, said it is a miracle she survived.

'There is no explanation on how my client is alive,' he wrote on social media. 'I sat with her and can't believe me eyes. Though her road to health will be long, she's alive.'

The black sedan blows past a stop sign and jumps the curb before running her over and slamming into her home

Surveillance footage captured one of the two suspects fleeing from the scene, exiting from the car's passenger side and running across the front lawn

The other girl who was playing in the front lawn with LaDerihanna was not seriously injured.

Authorities had said that the owner of the vehicle told investigators she was at work at the time of the crash and had given the car to her boyfriend.

The suspect and his girlfriend are since said to have contacted police following the crash and have been negotiating a surrender ever since.

In the shocking clip the person in the white pants is the the robber who attacked Fordham, his attorney claims.

Williams added: 'My client tried to take the gun from him, the guy hits him in the face, my client blacks out, and that's why you see the full fledge force of them going through a stop sign.'

Fordham only fled the scene when he saw someone come out of the house with a gun and making threats, Williams argues.

He said: 'With emotions rising, he had no opportunity to stay there, without possibly being harmed. He has not been trying to hide in the shadows.'

LaDerihanna's family then rushed out of the home and ran to help her following the crash

Charlette Bolton, LaDerihanna's mother, had issued a plea directly to the driver.

'You know what you did. You didn't try to help my baby,' she said. 'You almost killed my baby and I hope you do the right thing and turn yourself in.'

Bolton said she is trying to stay 'strong' for her daughter.

'I just want everybody to pray for LaDerihanna,' she said. 'The community loves her, her school loves her, her friends love her. I just want the people involved to be caught.'

Chris Stewart's, the family's attorney, posted a photo of LaDerihanna smiling with him from her hospital bed on Monday morning

LaDerihanna's family shared the security footage with the hope that the driver would come forward and turn themselves in

Charlette Bolton, LaDerihanna's mother,issued a plea directly to the driver. 'You know what you did. You didn't try to help my baby,' she said

'She's strong, and I know she'll bounce back from this. It's just going to take awhile.'

Stewart said footage of the horrific crash is proof that miracles do exist.

'I was shocked,' he said. 'I deal with wrongful death all the time, and I cannot believe she survived it. When I went to see her in the room, she does not have a mark on her face.'

'The video is really hard to watch, but she survived somehow. You gotta believe in God after seeing this.'