Family of Zion schools superintendent hopeful as 8-year-old Cooper struggles with spinal injury after Highland Park shooting.
Cooper, one of the Roberts family’s twin 8-year-old boys, was shot in the chest and gravely injured during the Highland Park massacre, his spinal cord severed.
Even after undergoing several surgeries for injuries suffered in the mass shooting herself, Keely Roberts told doctors she needed to be discharged from the hospital she was in so she could be with Cooper, who was at a different one, a family spokesperson said.
Though the child is in critical condition, there is hope he will recover but also fear he may never walk again, said Anthony Loizzi, a close friend to the Roberts family who is acting as their spokesman.
“They’ve relayed that it’s going to be a new normal for him going forward. They’re not sure, due to the severed spinal cord, whether he will be able to walk again,” Loizzi said in a Zoom call Thursday.
Roberts, who is superintendent of Zion Elementary School District 6, and her husband Jason Roberts attended the Fourth of July parade with their twins, Cooper and Luke.
Keely Roberts was shot in the foot and leg and Luke was wounded in the leg by shrapnel. They are expected to fully recover, Loizzi said.
“Right now their focus is Cooper,” he said.
Cooper has undergone several surgeries since Monday, including one Thursday in which “doctors were finally able to close his belly,” Loizzi said. Cooper is sedated and on a ventilator.
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“The Roberts family is so appreciative of the prayers and support that have come in and have been shared with them,” Loizzi said.
Cooper was described as a boy who likes to play sports and is a fan of the Milwaukee Brewers.
The twins attend Braeside Elementary School in Highland Park.
The family is devastated but hopeful, Loizzi added. Luke is being taken care of by his four older sisters while his mother and father remain by Cooper’s side at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.
“If you know Keely, she’s just a fighter and it sounds like Cooper got that part of her in him because he is fighting as hard as he can,” he said.
A GoFundMe page for the family is collecting donations. Loizzi said that during their difficult times the family has requested privacy and asked for financial support to ensure Cooper receives the proper treatment and therapy.
