16Horror of reliving boy shoot
Kin weep at vid in trial of gun suspect
After more than a year of celebrating a Bronx boy’s miraculous recovery from a gunshot wound to the head he suffered on his fifth birthday, his family was brought to tears Tuesday when video of the shooting was shown in court.
Little Jaheem Hunter was walking with his dad and his sister to his own birthday party when shots rang out along a stretch of Washington Ave. on June 5, 2017. The video shows Jaheem’s father, Charles Hunter, carrying the motionless boy to the car’s back seat as the suspected shooter sprints by him.
“Jaheem was just limp, no movement, no life,” said the boy’s sister and legal guardian Aja Holmes, who was in the driver’s seat when Jaheem was shot. “He just looked dead.”
Holmes, during testimony at Bronx Criminal Court, identified Michael Quiles as the shooter, and said he even offered a weak apology as he raced to get away.
“‘Oh s—t, my fault, Charlie,’ or ‘My bad, Charlie,’ ” she said, quoting the defendant.
Holmes, 35, dabbed her eyes with a tissue as she described a wild ride to St. Barnabas Hospital.
“The amount of blood I saw coming out of him, I didn’t think he was going to survive,” she said.
As her father took Jaheem out of the car at the hospital, he caught his foot on the bag that was holding the cake and ice cream for the birthday party. Hunter kicked and squashed the desserts as he dashed for the hospital, Holmes recalled.
Jaheem’s brain was swollen and he needed surgery to remove half of his skull bone to relieve pressure, said Neil Feldstein, the doctor who performed four surgeries on the boy’s brain.
He was moved New YorkPresbyterian Hospital Columbia, where Feldstein directs the pediatric neurosurgery department. He was in the hospital for 38 days.
Since his release, his sister said, Jaheem’s made progress — but he’s not fully recovered.
He suffers from seizures and takes Keppra, an antiseizure medication, twice a day, Holmes said.
Last May, Jaheeem — who had to wear a helmet for months to cover a soft spot on his head — had a seizure while riding his bike.
He hit his head in the fall, which caused profuse bleeding.
“He’ll bump into things, He’ll fall. He wants to run. but his right leg won’t keep up with the left,” Holmes said. “He’s still learning how to talk fully, how he used to talk before.”
But what progress Jaheem has made is amazing, the doctor said.
About a year after the shooting, Jaheem saw Feldstein again.
“He was walking. He was playful. He was interactive,” Feldstein said. “It’s pretty remarkable under the circumstances.”