Boy slowly healing after Utah shooting killed mother, brother

“It was extremely terrifying. He’s kind of like a little walking miracle.”

SANDY, Utah — A Utah shooting that killed a mother and son and critically injured the boy’s brother marks the latest blow for a mourning family that’s watching a son who survived a brain aneurysm last year again fighting for his life, a family spokesman said Thursday.

The attack happened as Memorez Rackley, 39, was walking her sons home from school in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy on Tuesday, police said. She’d had some kind of relationship with Jeremy Patterson and told police he was harassing her over the phone for days before he fatally shot her and Jase Rackley, 6, before killing himself, police said.

Another son, Myles Rackley, remained hospitalized two days later, though he’s slowly recovering, said Jeff White, a family friend acting as their spokesman. The boy, who White said is 11, suffered the brain aneurysm of natural causes without warning last year.

“It just happened. It was extremely terrifying,” White said. “He’s kind of like a little walking miracle.”

The boy missed his fifthgrade graduation Wednesday, so the students, teachers and parents read his name aloud and gave him a standing ovation, said classmate Chloee Walker.

The shooting came three days after Memorez Rackley called police to report Patterson was harassing her in the early-morning hours Saturday. She asked them to tell Patterson to stop contacting her, said police Sgt. Jason Nielsen.

The violence unfolded near the home of Kathy Peterson, who heard screams and pounding at her front door and opened it to find a hysterical woman and three young girls cowering, one of the girls covered in blood. She heard gunshots nearby in the middle-class neighborhood as she opened the door and brought them inside to safety.

“He’s killing everybody and he’s trying to kill us,” the terrified woman told Peterson through tears.

– JEFF WHITE, FAMILY FRIEND