MACON, Ga. — On New Year's Day, Alesia Waller-Evans says her 15-year old son KelCey Braswell asked to hang out with his friends, and that was nothing unusual.
"You know, it was the last day before they were going back to school, so I'm like, 'OK, go ahead. Enjoy," Evans said, but things took a turn.
"When parents go to sleep, you're assuming that your children are where they're supposed to be, and sometimes they're not," Evans said.
And he wasn't -- Braswell and 6 others now face charges after allegedly crashing a stolen car into a Macon fire station.
Around 3 a.m. Sunday, deputies saw the stolen SUV at the McDonald's on Rocky Creek Road.
The 13-year-old driver sped off, lost control, and crashed into the Bloomfield Road fire station.
"When I found out, I was in such shock when they told me, because that's not where he was supposed to be," Evans said.
All children were hospitalized, and Braswell still has severe injuries.
"During the accident, he broke his arm and elbow, he broke his leg and his knee, and fractured some bones in his back. It was kind of like having a baby all over again. I had to feed him, change him, we were teaching him again how to move his arms, how to get mobility," she said.
Evans says this is the first time that her son has been in trouble, and that she's received a lot of backlash.
"As a parent, you want to do the best you can for your children, teach them right from wrong, but that does not mean that every choice they make is going to be right. I don't condone anything that my son did, but at the same time, that's a lesson that life has to teach you. I can only tell you, but I can't force you to do it," Evans said.
She says she knows her son learned his lesson.
"A lot of people don't make it out of these situations. The fact that God spared their life is a wake-up call for them," Evans said.
Evans says kids' mental health is often overlooked, and that it's time for people to start stepping up and taking it seriously so that something like this does not happen again.
She says they've been in contact with the owner of the stolen car, and he's been very supportive of the children.