High school senior shot at family gathering collects diploma with bullet lodged in his cheek

A Georgia high school senior who was recently shot three times at a family gathering appeared at his graduation with a bullet still lodged in his cheek.

Dublin High School student Quantavis Lovett, 18, graduated a little over two weeks after being caught up in the seemingly random attack in Dublin, Georgia, 11Alive reported.

He was left on life support after being critically injured with bullets in the neck, back and buttocks on May 5 — but woke determined to recover in time to graduate and walk across the stage unaided.

“’I can’t die,’ I just kept saying that in my head – even when I was in the ambulance,” Lovett said, before revealing he asked doctors if he would be able to walk again.

“He said if you get out of here in time, I’m pretty sure you’ll be fine to walk,” the student said.

Lovett was discharged from the hospital six days after being shot, and on May 22, walked across the stage unaided — but with a bullet that had pierced his neck still lodged in his cheek.

“I felt great when I walked across the stage like it was like a lot of stress, a lot of anger, all of that relief,” Lovell, who played football in school and plans to study computer science at Clark Atlanta University, said.

“I heard a lot of people screaming. They were even relieved that I could walk.”