Nearly a month after her 8-year-old son Cooper Roberts was left paralyzed from the waist down in the Highland Park mass shooting, Keely Roberts has finally spoken to the media detail the tragic incident. 

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Who is Keely Roberts?

Keely Roberts is a superintendent at Zion Elementary School in District 6. She is married to Jason Roberts.

Luke and Cooper, their identical twin sons, attended Highland Park on July 4, 2022 to see the Independence Day parade in their city.

Keely in detail talked about how that incident changed her life completely, as per NBC.

Keely Roberts’s son, Cooper Roberts was shot on July 4 parade in Highland Park. Cooper is 8 years old. Cooper, who was wounded in the back during the march, is currently paralyzed below the waist.Shrapnel struck Cooper’s twin brother. Their four-year-old daughter did not accompany them to the parade.

“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,. 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,” she wrote in a statement.

“This bullet went straight to his back and did significant damage throughout his body, including to his aorta, liver, esophagus, and spinal cord,” Keely said.

Cooper has already had many surgeries, battled several illnesses, and is now paralyzed from the waist down while awaiting another heart surgery.

“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,” she added.

Keely Roberts, who still has bullet shrapnel in her leg from the incident, claimed that “other people’s love and kindness saved my child’s life.”

At the moment, Keely recalls, “It was very clear in my mind at that time, that Cooper was very likely not going to survive.” 

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She also described how terrified she was throughout the shooting and how useless she felt as a parent during that terrifying time.

“Nobody ever wants to look at your son dying paralyzed and have to admit you can’t stop [it, and] that there’s nothing you can do,” according to Roberts.

Cooper’s survival and recovery are credited to a group of medical professionals and rehabilitation experts, according to Roberts. After spending three months in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities, he went back home.

The family had been updating the world on Cooper’s steady improvement for months.

As for the outpouring of support for her family over the past 10 months from friends, numerous neighbors in Highland Park, and even complete strangers, Keely said she felt it strongly.

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About 30,000 residents live in the upscale suburban city of Highland Park, which is situated in Lake County, Illinois, 25 miles north of Chicago, on the region’s North Shore.

The city celebrated the Fourth of July with a parade that started at 10:00 a.m. The parade began at the corner of Laurel and St. Johns Avenues, traveled north on St. Johns Avenue, made a U-turn onto Central Avenue to head west, and then proceeded to Sunset Woods Park.

A local shop called Ross Cosmetics is located on the northwest corner of Central Avenue and 2nd Street, and that’s where the shooting started around 10 a.m. in downtown Highland Park. The shooter was on the roof of that building and was firing a weapon. Using a loose ladder linked to the building, the shooter had climbed to the elevated position.

The gunman fired three 30-round magazines from a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semiautomatic weapon.