Teen closely watched after beating at mall
Community gives to fund for boy with severe head injury
MILPITAS — When Greg and Maria Rasner got a call last week saying their eldest child was in the hospital after taking a beating at the Westfield Valley Fair mall, they figured the worst was a couple of scrapes and bruises.
But Christian Rasner, 17, of Milpitas, remains in a medically induced coma after he was at- tacked March 11 by two men who prodded him about gang affiliations in a parking lot outside the mall last week.
Greg Rasner said he and his wife got to the hospital at the same time as the ambulance and saw Christian, who was lucid and spoke with them, telling them he loved them before he was taken in for a CT scan.
“He had a fracture on the back of his skull from when he got knocked out, and he was bleeding inside and that was what worried them, so they said they would keep an eye on him, but he started to lose consciousness and he didn’t know what year it was and they said they had to do emergency surgery,” Greg Rasner recalled.
“At about 10 or 10:30, the surgeon said, ‘You have to prepare for the worst. This is a lifesaving surgery, but I don’t know if I can repair the damage.’ That was a pretty gut-wrenching two-minute conversation. You think you are going to take your son home with a bad bruise and he has to have this surgery,” Greg Rasner said.
He and his wife spent the night in the hospital, while some friends took care of the couple’s two other young children.
Christian was taken out of the induced coma on Friday and began responding to his parents and to the music of his favorite artist, Childish Gambino.
“But then on Sunday night he had brain swelling, which is normal in this surgery, but they wanted to put him back in induced coma to prevent further swelling … and he is stable now,” Greg Rasner said. “He is a young man and he is strong, and boys that age are pretty remarkable.”
He said the doctors were slowly going to stop using the cocktail of sedatives Christian is under and see how he responds.
Christian, who was born in the Philippines and moved to the United States with his mom 11 years ago, was described by his family as a fun-loving teen who loves music and spending time with his friends. He said Christian — whose favorite subjects are English and history — is an honor student.
“He is a typical teenager — thinking about his future, where he fits in the world, what are his near-and long-term goals. He wants though to go to arts school and learn to be a music producer. He listens to jazz, hip-hop, dance, but his current favorite is Childish Gambino,” Greg Rasner said.
The evening of March 11, the Milpitas student and two friends realized they were being followed by two men in the mall who yelled at them, asking what gang they represented. As they exited the mall near the Bank of America parking lot, the two men approached them, San Jose police spokesman Officer Albert Morales said.
One of the suspects again asked Christian about his gang affiliation; he responded that he was not in one. Then one of the suspects hit him, knocking him to the ground. His friends were uninjured.
Morales said the two suspects were described as men in their mid-20s and remain at large, and the case has been assigned to the Gang Investigations Unit.
Greg Rasner has been frustrated at times with the pace of the investigation into the case, which he suspects may have been part of a gang-initiation ritual, and wonders why surveillance images of the suspects have not been made public.
Serena Jean, a friend of the family and neighbor, created a Go Fund Me site to help the family with medical expenses. Since the site was started Sunday, more than $10,000 has been raised.
Greg and Maria Rasner said they are overwhelmed by the support and prayers.
“This is a marathon. This isn’t going to be over in two weeks, and I need to think (about) things like my job, my wife just got laid off on Tuesday, and we have two other kids, plus Christian,” Greg Rasner said.
He added that the outpouring of donations and well wishes are “better than I deserve, strangers and friends are willing to do that and I just don’t know what to say. I just want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers and hopes and all the well wishes. It makes it easier to understand that these are the people holding you up when things get difficult.”