"Am I Safe?": Family of shooting victim, 8, worries trauma has forever changed him
The family of an eight-year-old shooting victim is afraid the trauma has forever changed him.
Derrion Kelly is recovering in Children’s Hospital after catching three bullets in a shooting near 34th and Locust Monday.
“Right now we’re helping him get up. We’re helping him walk,” said Leonte Jackson, Kelly’s uncle. “He’s definitely weak but I will say that he is stable.”
Police believe two people were shooting at a house and hit Kelly, who was outside on a porch.
Jackson has been to the hospital every day. He says Kelly’s mother has taken off work to stay at her son’s side.
They worry the happy-go-lucky child they know and love may be gone.
“The first thing he asked when he came out of surgery was, ‘Am I safe?’” Kelly said. “He’s waking up out of his sleep and saying, ‘Am I safe?’ I truly feel he will never be the same.”
Tracey Dent, a family friend, says Kelly’s 12-year-old sister is taking all this very hard.
“[She] saw him with the tubes in him and everything and just broke down and cried,” Dent said. “She couldn’t go back up there ever since.”
The convenience store Stark Foods will be gifting a bookbag full of school supplies and a bicycle to the Kelly family Friday evening.
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