Two kindergartners who were critically wounded in the shooting at Feather River Adventist School in Oroville, California, last week are showing signs of improvement after undergoing surgery, Action News Now reported.
Roman Mendez, 6, and Elias Wolford, 5, both came out of surgery on Friday and are recovering, according to their families. The young boys were shot on Wednesday when a crazed man opened fire in the school after meeting with the principal about enrolling his grandson, what authorities believe was just a “ruse” to get into the school. In writings obtained by law enforcement after the shooting, the shooter — a 56-year-old man with a criminal record and a history of mental health issues — wrote that he was seeking out “child executions” in response to “America’s involvement in Genocide and Oppression of Palestinians,” according to authorities.
“A little 5-year-old gets shot with a nine millimeter and survived, it’s a miracle,” said Wolford’s aunt Tawnee Preisner, according to Action News Now. “This has shattered his childhood, he’s still in really critical condition. All those other kids that were in the school. This is all very traumatic. One thing that is really devastating too, they were targeted because of their religion. Nobody should ever have to go through this.”
Preisner added that Wolford has been sleeping a lot since his surgery, but he has talked to his dad since the shooting. Mendez’s sister Vanessa Diaz wrote on social media on Sunday that the 6-year-old boy is awake and breathing on his own. Diaz said that the first words Mendez spoke after the tubes were removed from his mouth were, “Where is Elias?”
On Friday, the annual Christmas tree lighting in Oroville, a town of around 20,000, began with a prayer vigil for the Mendez and Wolford. Kenn Malone, a local pastor and a chaplain for the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, said, “No matter where you go, there’s evil and there’s bad people but there’s a whole lot more good that goes on what people realize, so that’s how we do it, keep this thing going by this thing called love.”
After shooting the two kindergartners, the shooter turned the gun on himself. District Attorney Mike Ramsey said it’s possible that the shooter would have been charged with a hate crime if he had survived. The shooter was a homeless man who moved around the Chico and Sacramento areas, CBS News reported. The 56-year-old white male was convicted of multiple crimes in the 1990s and early 2000s, including theft, fraud, and forgery. According to Sheriff Honea, the shooter also had a juvenile record.
Just last month, the shooter was arrested in South San Francisco after he was suspected of stealing a U-Haul truck. Law enforcement officers found him in the stolen truck, and he was transported to the San Bernadino County Jail. He pled not guilty and was released from jail on November 21. After he was released, the shooter stayed at various motels in the Chico area, which is about 30 miles north of Feather River Adventist School.
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