‘I JUST TOLD HIM ... GOD SPARED HIM AND HAS A PLAN’
Carlos Yanez Jr., critically injured in shooting that killed partner Ella French, faces a long, difficult road to recovery — and his father has some choice words for the mayor
Before the traffic stop in West Englewood that resulted in the fatal shooting of his partner and left him fighting for his own life, Chicago Police Officer Carlos Yanez Jr. had considered moving his young family to the neighborhood.
“My son’s heart was so gentle that I had to stop him from buying a property there to move in there with his son and his wife because he felt so much compassion for the community and the people,” said Carlos Yanez Sr., a retired Chicago police officer.
“He said, ‘Dad, there’s so many good people there, but they’re scared. They live in fear. They can’t come out at night. Now, they can’t come out during the day. They’re killed in their homes. Through the windows. Through the walls. And nothing happens.’ ”
The Chicago Sun Times is identifying the officer critically wounded during the traffic stop that killed his partner, Ella French, with the consent of the officer and his father.
During a lengthy and emotional interview, the elder Yanez shared details on his son’s condition and the difficult recovery ahead.
That will include living with two bullets in his brain. Doctors did not remove them because, as his father put it: “They can’t.”
Yanez Jr.’s sister, Nicole Christina, a doctor, is coordinating her brother’s medical care team and sending written updates.
According to her latest messages, her brother lost an eye, is out of the intensive care unit and has some “sensation,” but “no movement on left side of his body or right leg.” He has made “some intentional twitches of movement in three limbs he is not able to move,” she wrote.
“Junior’s sentences are getting longer. Sometimes, his voice gets a little louder. Mood improves when he can twitch a leg
“WE WERE TALKING ABOUT WHAT A MIRACLE IT IS THAT HE CAN MOVE HIS RIGHT ARM, AND HE SAID, ‘AND MY RIGHT LEG’ . . . WE WERE SCREAMING, CRYING AND THANKING GOD . ... HE HAS NOT HAD THAT FEELING OF BEING ABLE TO MOVE ON THE LEFT. WE ARE FOCUSING ON THE POSITIVE AND EVERY WIN NEVER FEELS SMALL.”
According to a written update to the family from
Chicago Police Officer Carlos Yanez Jr.’s sister
muscle. There was a twitch in his left shoulder,” the sister wrote in her 11th update.
A neurosurgeon who is a family friend also weighed in, Yanez’s sister said, and noted “the fact that his speech is advancing is a really great sign. No one can know for sure until we are a couple months into therapy.”