'We'll never be the same': Cooper Roberts' mom breaks silence after Highland Park shooting
Keely Roberts has finally broken her silence to the press nearly a month after the Highland Park mass shooting left her 8-year-old son Cooper Roberts paralyzed from the waist down.
Eight-year-old Cooper was enjoying the Fourth of July parade when a bullet hit his chest during the mass shooting at Highland Park, Illinois. "This bullet went straight to his back and did significant damage throughout his body, including to his aorta, liver, esophagus, and spinal cord," Keely Roberts said in a statement Wednesday.
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Cooper has already undergone multiple surgeries, battled several infections, and is now waiting for another heart surgery while being paralyzed from his waist down. "Cooper has been asking me -- will I walk again? Will I have to be in a wheelchair forever?" Roberts said. "I have been straight with him because I have to be … we don’t know what kind of mobility he will have."
“We were shot. … I can hardly say it. … None of us — Cooper, Luke, me, our family, the other victims and their families, our community — will ever be the same,” Roberts said in a written statement. “Seven people were murdered that day, and our hearts go out to their families, friends, and all whose lives they touched. And we are among the dozens of others — injured, shattered, hanging on and fighting through.”
Just like hundreds of family, Keely Roberts, her husband Jason Roberts, and their twin sons Luke and Cooper were present at Highland Park to enjoy the Independence Day parade in their hometown. Just as the parade was about to start, the gunman began to shoot at the crowd from a rooftop along the route.
Keely, who is a superintendent at Zion Elementary School District 6, herself got shot in two parts of her leg and needs ongoing orthopedic treatment, while Cooper's twin brother was hit by shrapnel. Luckily, their four-year-old daughter did not attend the parade.
In a video interview, Roberts recalled the morning of the shooting and thanked all the people "who didn’t think twice and ran back into the scene and helped us.” “It was a beautiful act of kindness … it saved my life, it saved my children. Cooper would not be alive today if it were not for the act of these people who just risked everything,"she said.
“I’m heartbroken and I’m sad,” the mother said, “but it is a losing question to ask why (because) there is no good answer and that is not productive.” Cooper’s heart-wrenching story has stunned people all over the world. Days after day, the Roberts family delivers updates on his surgeries and recovery and asks people to pray for his speedy recovery.
Also on, Wednesday, the Attorney's office of Luke Country State announced that a grand jury has charged the suspect of the Highland Park mass shooting, Robert Crimo, on 117 felony counts. The suspected gunman has been charged with 21 counts of first-degree murder, three counts for each deceased victim, 48 counts of attempted murder, and 48 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm.