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http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/338226,CST-NWS-delasalle12.article
Student was shot in the back and he didn't know ROSELAND | De La Salle senior: 'I'm just happy that I'm here'
April 12, 2007
BY ANNIE SWEENEY
Crime Reporter/asweeney@suntimes.com
Cameron Kelly is a young man of muscle and discipline, his family says.
The 6-foot-3, 250-pound shot-putter, discus-thrower and runner at the De La Salle Institute earns A's and B's and wants to study computer technology at Northern Michigan University next year.
Cameron Kelly, shown in his school letter jacket at left, heard a gunshot but didn't realize he had been hit until he got to school.
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times)
RELATED STORIES • More local news
On Wednesday morning, on his way to track practice, Cameron was strong enough to take a bullet in his back and walk away -- traveling more than 60 blocks for more than 30 minutes to De La Salle before even realizing he had been shot.
'I think I've been shot'Cameron, 17, said he heard a gunshot as he was crossing 95th Street at State to board the Red Line L to get to the school at 35th and Michigan. He felt a slight pain in his chest, but didn't see blood and kept going, eager to get to practice. When he took off his coat in the locker room, a teammate told him his shirt was red with blood.
He called his mother, Trina Wright, who was sitting at her desk at the Cook County Criminal Courts building, where she works as a sheriff's officer. "Mom,'' he said. "Don't get worried. I think I've been shot in the back.''
Wright's husband and Cameron's father -- who also works for the Cook County Sheriff's Department -- joined Wright at Cameron's side at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The bullet was still wedged in his back muscles.
'He's hard as a rock'"I'm just happy that I'm here now,'' he said, lying on his back wrapped in white blankets, his feet dangling over the end of the bed. "I'm just happy that I'm here, and that I'm OK.'' Wright thinks the bullet was small caliber -- perhaps a .22-caliber -- and that Cameron's De La Salle jacket probably slowed the bullet. His parents also point to Cameron's mental and physical strength.
"He's hard as a rock. He's a true meteor,'' his dad, Leroy Kelly, said with a proud laugh, referring to the De La Salle team name. "The fact that he was calm, cool and collected comes from discipline. From the school and his parents.''
Cameron, who lives in South Holland with his mom, sister and stepfather, said he remembered seeing three people -- one with a bloody nose -- after his grandmother dropped him off at the 95th Street CTA stop about 9 a.m.
As he crossed the street, he heard a loud pop and realized it was a gunshot. He asked a woman if he had been shot. She said no. He felt a pain in his chest -- like someone had punched him -- but assumed it was nerves because the shot had startled him.
He got on a train, put his head in his hands and thanked God he was OK.
The soft-spoken teen isn't exactly sure how he got to school with a gunshot wound. "I made it all the way from 95th,'' he said. "I just dealt with it. I wanted to go to practice.''
'De La Salle men are tough'Chicago Police were reviewing videotape from the CTA and continuing to investigate the shooting Wednesday. Cameron's doctor told the family that for now, it would be risky to remove the bullet from his back. But because it's lodged in his left side and Cameron throws with his right hand, he plans to return to the field.
Lawrence A. Blakley, executive vice president of the school, said he wasn't surprised to hear that. "De La Salle men are tough.''
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/338226,CST-NWS-delasalle12.article
Student was shot in the back and he didn't know ROSELAND | De La Salle senior: 'I'm just happy that I'm here'
April 12, 2007
BY ANNIE SWEENEY
Crime Reporter/asweeney@suntimes.com
Cameron Kelly is a young man of muscle and discipline, his family says.
The 6-foot-3, 250-pound shot-putter, discus-thrower and runner at the De La Salle Institute earns A's and B's and wants to study computer technology at Northern Michigan University next year.
Cameron Kelly, shown in his school letter jacket at left, heard a gunshot but didn't realize he had been hit until he got to school.
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times)
RELATED STORIES • More local news
On Wednesday morning, on his way to track practice, Cameron was strong enough to take a bullet in his back and walk away -- traveling more than 60 blocks for more than 30 minutes to De La Salle before even realizing he had been shot.
'I think I've been shot'Cameron, 17, said he heard a gunshot as he was crossing 95th Street at State to board the Red Line L to get to the school at 35th and Michigan. He felt a slight pain in his chest, but didn't see blood and kept going, eager to get to practice. When he took off his coat in the locker room, a teammate told him his shirt was red with blood.
He called his mother, Trina Wright, who was sitting at her desk at the Cook County Criminal Courts building, where she works as a sheriff's officer. "Mom,'' he said. "Don't get worried. I think I've been shot in the back.''
Wright's husband and Cameron's father -- who also works for the Cook County Sheriff's Department -- joined Wright at Cameron's side at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The bullet was still wedged in his back muscles.
'He's hard as a rock'"I'm just happy that I'm here now,'' he said, lying on his back wrapped in white blankets, his feet dangling over the end of the bed. "I'm just happy that I'm here, and that I'm OK.'' Wright thinks the bullet was small caliber -- perhaps a .22-caliber -- and that Cameron's De La Salle jacket probably slowed the bullet. His parents also point to Cameron's mental and physical strength.
"He's hard as a rock. He's a true meteor,'' his dad, Leroy Kelly, said with a proud laugh, referring to the De La Salle team name. "The fact that he was calm, cool and collected comes from discipline. From the school and his parents.''
Cameron, who lives in South Holland with his mom, sister and stepfather, said he remembered seeing three people -- one with a bloody nose -- after his grandmother dropped him off at the 95th Street CTA stop about 9 a.m.
As he crossed the street, he heard a loud pop and realized it was a gunshot. He asked a woman if he had been shot. She said no. He felt a pain in his chest -- like someone had punched him -- but assumed it was nerves because the shot had startled him.
He got on a train, put his head in his hands and thanked God he was OK.
The soft-spoken teen isn't exactly sure how he got to school with a gunshot wound. "I made it all the way from 95th,'' he said. "I just dealt with it. I wanted to go to practice.''
'De La Salle men are tough'Chicago Police were reviewing videotape from the CTA and continuing to investigate the shooting Wednesday. Cameron's doctor told the family that for now, it would be risky to remove the bullet from his back. But because it's lodged in his left side and Cameron throws with his right hand, he plans to return to the field.
Lawrence A. Blakley, executive vice president of the school, said he wasn't surprised to hear that. "De La Salle men are tough.''
