HIGHLAND PARK, IL — The 8-year-old boy who suffered a severe spinal cord injury when he was shot at the Highland Park July 4 parade has returned home, his family announced Thursday.
Cooper Roberts is again living in Highland Park with family after more than three weeks in a pediatric intensive care unit followed by nearly eight weeks of inpatient rehabilitation, which kept him separated from his parents, twin brother, four sisters and French bulldog puppy, George.
After he was struck by a bullet from a rooftop shooter at the parade, Roberts received emergency life-saving surgery at Highland Park Hospital.
He was then rushed via helicopter to the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital, where he remained in critical condition and at times required the aid of a ventilator to breath.
Roberts was then transferred in late July to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago for physical and occupational therapy. After several weeks at the rehab center, Roberts' catheter and intravenous feeding tube were removed.
According to his family, Roberts has been diagnosed with broken vertebrae, a severe spinal cord injury and paralysis. Earlier this month, his family said therapists at the rehabilitation center reported he was showing some signs of cognitive loss.
His mother, Zion District 6 Superintendent Keely Roberts, suffered gunshot wounds to the leg that required multiple surgeries, while his brother, Luke, was struck by shrapnel.
Roberts' parents said in a statement that it has been an honor to watch all six of their children support each other through the ordeal and acknowledge that his road ahead remains cruel and unfair.
"The transition to having Cooper’s extensive medical needs being addressed at home vs. at the hospital or rehabilitation clinic is a gigantic learning curve for all of us. And, now that he is home, Cooper has to deal on a daily basis with the sadness and grief of recognizing all the things he’s lost — all that he used to be able to do at his house, in his community, that he cannot do anymore," said Jason and Keely Roberts.
The parents said there is no word sufficient to describe the pain they feel seeing their son confront reminders of what he has lost — the bicycle that they used to have to fight him to stop riding every day or the jersey from the soccer team with which he can no longer play.
"Even our home, which we all have loved, simply cannot work for us anymore with Cooper and a wheelchair and many other needs. It’s yet another thing that keeps us up at night — how will we find, renovate or build a home that can work for our family again?" they said. "Right now, Cooper is only able to access certain parts of the house — that is not right for him or for our family."
The family has raised more than $2 million from more than 30,000 donors to an online fundraiser on the GoFundMe platform. Donations, gifts and well-wishes are also being accepted at Zion School District 6, 2800 29th St., Zion.
More than 50 paradegoers were shot, seven fatally, at the city's first Independence Day parade since the COVID-19 pandemic. A 21-year-old Highwood man was arrested after an hours long manhunt, indicted on 117 felony counts and ordered held without bail while awaiting trial.
According to the Roberts family, the 8-year-old mass shooting survivor has decided to take up a new sport: wheelchair tennis.
"He and Luke are each excited to really learn to play the game and will hopefully play both together and individually for years to come," his parents said. "We have no doubt Cooper will be wicked awesome at tennis … and any other sport he decides to play. It will just be different."
Read more from Cooper's parents, Jason and Keely Roberts:
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