Highland Park Shooting Survivor Cooper Roberts Returns Home From Rehab

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.

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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."

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Earlier:

• 'Hopeless, Sad And Angry' Cooper Roberts Faces Challenges, Family Says
• 8-Year-Old Shooting Survivor Cooper Roberts Transferred To Rehab Center
• Mother Of 8-Year-Old Boy Shot In Highland Park Mass Shooting Describes Road Ahead
• Boy Paralyzed At Highland Park Parade Goes Outside For First Time Since July 4

Read more from Cooper's parents, Jason and Keely Roberts:

We are at a total loss of words to express how filled with gratitude, love and wholeness we now feel given that we are able to finally have Cooper back at home. There was a time, not all that long ago, where we were desperately and feverishly praying just for Cooper to live. To be able to have Cooper home and our family all reunited together again is such an amazing blessing. He is able to live once again with his twin brother, Luke, and resume being one another’s very best playmates. You take for granted how wonderful it is to be able to have all your children together and how important they are to each other until it is taken away. Having our children reunited as a sibling unit and knowing that they can be together whenever they need or want to, is so special to us and to Cooper. They have held each other up and through so much during what has been the most horrific time in their lives. They have seen, in a way they never had before, just how much they enrich each other’s lives and how deep their love for one another truly is. It has been an honor and a privilege as their parents to watch all six of them lean on and lift each other up throughout this devastating ordeal. We are so proud of the human beings that they are, and Cooper is so happy to be home with them.

We know that Cooper continues to face a heartbreakingly cruel and unfair road ahead. 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 … playgrounds he cannot play on, sports he cannot physically play the way he used to, a backyard he cannot play in the same way he used to, a bike in the garage that sits idle, that we used to have to fight him to stop riding each day… even much of his own home which he cannot access. For all the love that he has come back to, there are so many painful reminders of what he has lost. There is no word that we know of that adequately describes the level of pain you feel or that Cooper feels when he sees his bike he can no longer ride or his old soccer jersey ... heartbreaking, agonizing, despair — there is just not a painful enough description.

This “new normal” we are just starting during this transition home is hard; really, really hard. It is filled with a lot of new challenges and continued grief for what we have lost. There is a lot of trying to figure out how to pick up the broken pieces of a life we knew and put it back together, but without the instructions. 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? Right now, Cooper is only able to access certain parts of the house — that is not right for him or for our family.

Yet, we choose to focus on what we do have. Cooper is alive and home and our sweet and lovely athletic little boy has made up his mind that he is going to figure out new ways to play sports. To steal a lyric from a great country song (thank you, Kacey Musgraves), in a happy-and-sad-all-at-the-same-time moment, Cooper has decided that he is going to find new sports to play. Cooper has decided to take up wheelchair tennis. He has already been to the tennis courts a couple times! 🙂 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. We have no doubt Cooper will be wicked awesome at tennis…and any other sport he decides to play. It will just be different.

Since the very start, Cooper has inspired us. He is brave and kind. He is tough as nails yet incredibly tender-hearted. He cares more about others well-being than his own. He loves the world…and it is because of the love and prayers you have all sent and continue to send to him that we believe he continues on a path of healing. Please continue to pray for our sweet little boy…we know he will show the entire world that love really does win in the end.

With So Much Love and Gratitude,
Jason and Keely Roberts