The July Fourth parade shooting paralyzed a boy. His life remains shattered 2 years later, mom says

CHICAGO (AP) — Keely Roberts counts the days, not years, since a deadly shooting at an Independence Day parade in 2022 injured her and left one of her twin boys paralyzed from the waist down.

It has been 730 days since her now-10-year-old son Cooper could chase his brother Luke in their suburban Chicago backyard, play soccer or jump on his bed.

“It is the 730th anniversary of the total annihilation of our lives,” the Highland Park mother told reporters Wednesday. “That horrific day lives on forever, especially in Cooper’s life, which irrevocably shattered.”

Roberts and two of her children are among the dozens of people wounded in the shooting that took seven lives in the suburb about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Chicago. As Highland Park officials planned the first parade since the shooting, victims have been trying to make sense of what happened, many of them feeling fresh pain.

The second anniversary comes a week after a shocking court hearing in which suspected shooter Robert E. Crimo III was expected to change his plea to guilty and allow family members and those wounded to address him directly. Instead, Crimo abruptly changed his mind about the plea deal during the proceedings, which victims and their family members said inflicted more suffering. His trial is scheduled for next year.

“There’s not really going to be closure on this for us. The wound is too big; it’s too deep,” Roberts said. “There’s just nothing healing or restorative or comforting about justice delayed, especially justice delayed in a way that feels cruel.”

Roberts said she almost didn’t attend the hearing but wanted a chance to address Crimo directly in court by reading a victim impact statement. Instead, she spent the hearing holding back tears. She said it felt especially difficult when Crimo shocked everyone and entered the courtroom in a wheelchair. Authorities later said he requested it because he felt too nervous to walk.

“Cooper never gets to decide if he wants to use a wheelchair or not,” Roberts said. “He is forced to live his life now a paraplegic.”

Roberts was shot in the leg, while her son Cooper — the youngest of the injured victims — was shot in the back, severing his spinal cord. His twin brother was hit by shrapnel.

Roberts said her leg injury is still painful and yet another reminder of what happened. The family has been renovating their home to make it accessible for Cooper.

While he has grappled with not being able to walk again, he has been resilient, Roberts said. He has taken to adaptive sports, including sled hockey and wheelchair basketball.

Highland Park leaders this year announced the return of the Fourth of July parade. Last year, the city hosted a community walk instead. Thursday's parade will have a new downtown route, and the city will also host an indoor remembrance ceremony.

Mass shootings often surge in the summer months, and the Fourth of July has historically been one of the deadliest days of the year. But city officials said it was important to return to traditions amid the trauma.

“Independence Day has traditionally been a special opportunity for our community to come together with beloved traditions,” Mayor Nancy Rotering said in a statement. “As we continue our journey as one Highland Park, we do so with respect, compassion, and support for all whose lives were forever changed on July 4, 2022, while maintaining the community spirit that has always been a hallmark of Highland Park’s Independence Day events.”

Roberts said that her family won’t go and that she plans to go out of town with all of her six children to relax on a lake in Wisconsin.

“I don’t know," she said, “if we’ll ever be able to attend the parade again.”

FILE - A visitor prays at a memorial to the seven people killed and others injured in the Fourth of July mass shooting at the Highland Park War Memorial in Highland Park, Ill., July 7, 2022. Keely Roberts, the mother of the youngest victims of the Fourth of July parade shooting, which left one of her twin sons — now 10 — paralyzed from the waist down, will talk to the media Wednesday, July 3, 2024, about what it means to survive the horror two years later. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

FILE - Law enforcement search after a mass shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade in downtown Highland Park, Ill., a Chicago suburb, July 4, 2022. Keely Roberts, the mother of the youngest victims of the Fourth of July parade shooting, which left one of her twin sons — now 10 — paralyzed from the waist down, will talk to the media Wednesday, July 3, 2024, about what it means to survive the horror two years later. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

This undated photo provided by Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications shows Cooper Roberts, who was a victim of the 2022 Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, Ill. He remains paralyzed from the waist down. Keely Roberts, the mother of the youngest victims of the Fourth of July parade shooting, which left one of her twin sons — now 10 — paralyzed from the waist down, will talk to the media Wednesday, July 3, 2024, about what it means to survive the horror two years later. (The Roberts Family/Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications via AP)

This undated photo provided by Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications shows Cooper Roberts, who was a victim of the 2022 Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, Ill. He remains paralyzed from the waist down. Keely Roberts, the mother of the youngest victims of the Fourth of July parade shooting, which left one of her twin sons — now 10 — paralyzed from the waist down, will talk to the media Wednesday, July 3, 2024, about what it means to survive the horror two years later. (The Roberts Family/Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications via AP)

This undated photo provided by Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications shows twin brothers Cooper and Luke Roberts playing basketball. Cooper was a victim of the 2022 Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, Ill., and remains paralyzed from the waist down. Keely Roberts, the mother of the youngest victims of the Fourth of July parade shooting, which left one of her twin sons — now 10 — paralyzed from the waist down, will talk to the media Wednesday, July 3, 2024, about what it means to survive the horror two years later. (The Roberts Family/Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications via AP)

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Ten years after declaring a short-lived caliphate in the Nigerian town of Gwoza, just across the border with Cameroon, Islamic extremists deployed female suicide bombers there — their first in the conflict-battered region since 2020 — to sound an alarm: One of the world’s longest wars is still happening.

The first of the three coordinated suicide bombings on June 30 targeted a well-attended wedding. The second was detonated at the burial ceremony for the victims, and the third at a hospital attending to those injured.

At least 32 people in total were killed in the attacks, including nine family members and friends of Mohammed Kehaya, a resident who is now worried about his safety in Borno state, the hotbed of the Islamic militancy that started in 2009.

Nigeria Defense Chief Gen. Chris Musa said the attacks were not a setback for the military but “a sign of desperation," describing them as a one-off by the extremists who once took the world by surprise when they kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in Borno in 2014.

“Some individuals would do everything possible for us not to succeed,” Gen. Musa said of the attackers.

However, several security analysts and locals interviewed about the bombings echoed concerns that the attacks must have taken a lot of planning and coordination and portend danger in Borno, where some villages lack security presence.

One of the extremists’ goals could be to distort the narrative that the security situation in the region has normalized, said Vincent Foucher, consulting senior analyst for West Africa at the International Crisis Group.

“It’s a way to show the war goes on,” Foucher said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but blame quickly fell on Boko Haram, which since 2009 has launched an insurgency to establish their radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in northeastern Nigeria. They have since splintered into different factions, together accounting for the direct deaths of at least 35,000 people and the displacement of more than 2 million amid a humanitarian crisis with people in dire need of foreign aid.

Two days before the bombings, Nigerian military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Edward Buba was meeting with reporters in the capital, Abuja, where he spoke of successes recorded by security forces in their war against extremists. Even while admitting it would “take time and effort to completely destroy” them, he repeated a phrase frequently said among Nigerian officials: “We have greatly degraded the terrorists.”

In Borno, however, the bombings sent shock waves across families and left many wondering whether they should pack what was left of their belongings and flee once again.

“Parents have been calling in to ask if their kids would be safe going back to school,” said Yusuf Ibn Tom, a public school teacher in Maiduguri. “Everyone here is scared.”

At the height of the insurgency in 2014, Boko Haram was considered the world's deadliest terrorist group, killing at least 6,000 people that year alone, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Terrorism Index. A lot has changed since then that has made the extremists far less lethal.

The military has pushed them further into the fringes of the Lake Chad axis. The 2021 death of the group’s founding leader, Abubakar Shekau, demoralized some members and made suicide bombing less popular. Clashes between Shekau’s faction and the one linked to the Islamic State group have made the extremists turn against themselves, sometimes shifting the focus of attacks from the military and civilians and even contributing to the defection of thousands who are undergoing a reintegration program.

But what has not changed over the years is the “operational prowess” of the extremists, said Cameron Hudson, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Attacks like the latest one “are rarely one-off incidents and are often part of a wider series,” Hudson said, not ruling out that more might come in the future. “That will give a better indication of the relative strength of the insurgency today as well as the Nigerian military’s ability to respond,” he added.

Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria.

Follow AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

FILE - Parents of Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped in 2014 by Islamic extremists, attend a 10th anniversary event of the abduction in Lagos, Nigeria, on April 4, 2024. Recent suicide bombings in northeastern Nigeria have raised questions about the country's claim that it has degraded the Islamic extremists whose insurgency since 2009 has killed more than 35,000 people directly and displaced more than 2 million. (AP Photo/Mansur Ibrahim, File)

FILE - Injured victims of a suicide bomb attack receive treatment at a hospital in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on June 30, 2024. Recent suicide bombings in northeastern Nigeria have raised questions about the country's claim that it has degraded the Islamic extremists whose insurgency since 2009 has killed more than 35,000 people directly and displaced more than 2 million. (AP Photo/Joshua Omiri, File)

FILE - An injured victim of a suicide bomb attack receives treatment at a hospital in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on June 30, 2024. Recent suicide bombings in northeastern Nigeria have raised questions about the country's claim that it has degraded the Islamic extremists whose insurgency since 2009 has killed more than 35,000 people directly and displaced more than 2 million. (AP Photo/Joshua Omiri, File)