Five-year-old Elias Wolford was shot in the December 4 Oroville school shooting, and has had no movement in his legs since. But on New Year’s Eve, his family announced he was able to wiggle his foot, indicating his legs may eventually recover.
The December 4 school shooting in Butte County at the small Feather River Adventist School in Oroville left two kindergartners severely injured: six-year-old Roman Mendez, and five-year-old Elias Wolford. The young Wolford took a bullet through the chest and abdomen, which did significant damage to his spine, and he has been on interventional tubes for the month of December, and has been unable to move either of his legs.
That is, until recently. The Chronicle reports that after three surgeries, for which he is still hospitalized, little Elias Wolford was able to wiggle his foot this week. His family announced this very heartening development in a New Year’s Eve post on Wolford’s GoFundMe page.
“Elias is experiencing some sensation in his left leg and feeling in his right leg, along with slight movement,” his mother Debbie Wolford announced in a post. “Just yesterday, he managed to wiggle his left foot, which is an encouraging sign!”
She added, “We are planning to transfer him soon to a specialized hospital that focuses on spinal rehabilitation, where he will receive the dedicated care he needs.”
The other shooting victim, six-year-old Roman Mendez, suffered severe injuries to his chest and back, and has also endured several surgeries over December. But his family announced on their crowdfunding page that he’s already been released from the hospital.
“Roman is doing amazing! He was released December 20th, right before Christmas!” the family announced in that post.
No other children were injured in the shooting, though Roman’s twin brother Armani witnessed his brother being shot, and has obviously been pretty traumatized.
The shooter in that attack, 56-year-old Glenn Litton, had already turned the gun on himself and taken his own life before police even arrived at the school. Litton was reportedly chronically homeless, and had a lengthy rap sheet of theft and forgery charges. He was considered mentally ill, and allegedly believed conspiracy theories about the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Litton himself had attended Paradise Adventist School in Butte County.
Image via GoFundMe
