A 12-year-old boy from Alabama who was shot a week ago shared a message of strength and resilience on Thursday as he looks at the long road ahead.
Brandon Roller was dashing for cover from the gunfire last Friday when a bullet pierced straight through his back.
From his hospital bed Thursday, Brandon said, "I'm good. I'm alive, and I'm feeling better."
Brandon's resilience serves as a powerful reminder for his mother, Courtney Chestner, who remains in a state of disbelief following the traumatic shooting that disrupted their family's life.
"I thank God for giving me such a courageous son because he said it doesn't matter if I could walk off not because God, I'm alive," Chestner said.
Chestner told WVTM13, that Brandon was playing with friends Friday afternoon outside of their East Birmingham apartment complex when it suddenly turned violent.
"About 10 teenage boys walked up to them, like 10 of them, every last one of them had a gun, he said he doesn't know none of them," Chestner continued.
"They asked him if they knew a guy and my son said no, we don't know him."
Brandon then turned to go into his home when gunfire erupted.
'Ma, I've Been Shot'
"I seen the little holes and I ended up going down the steps," Chestner recalled.
"The neighbor that he was with outside ended up running past me out my front door and when I turned to my right, that's when I seen my son laying on the floor, and he said, 'Ma, I've been shot, I've been shot.'"
Birmingham police officers allegedly responded to the Carson Road apartment complex around 3:15 p.m. Friday.
Paramedics rushed Brandon to the hospital, only for his mother to receive news no parent wants to hear.
"It took about 10 minutes for them to tell me that he was paralyzed from the waist down and hearing that news, it devasted me because all of my boys are really, really close, but he's the outgoing child," Chestner said.
No arrests have been made in the shooting, but his mother hopes someone will step up to police with information.
And while he faces a long road to recovery, Brandon's message is to "stay strong."
Brandon's mother also had a stark message for the shooters, "I want to look in the eyes of the person who did it and I want to tell them I'm sorry you had to grow up the way you did,"
"I'm sorry your mom didn't show you enough love to where you feel like you got to be in these streets to prove yourself to people who don't even love you."
A GoFundMe has been made to help the family with medical expenses.
