5-yo blinded in shooting learning to cope with trauma
5-year-old son Malakai Roberts (center) receives a red stethoscope on November 7 while signing up for the Future Healers Program in Louisville KY. Malakai was hit in the head with a stray bullet in December 2020 and blinded.
By Munashe Kwangwari
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — Growing up Cacy Roberts never heard a gunshot and she wanted to keep it that way for as long as she could. It’s the reason she said she moved from Ohio to, what she calls the nice part of town, in Lexington, Kentucky. However, during one night last December, her nice part of town turned into the opposite.
“I was watching TV and then all of a sudden 2:15 in the morning I start hearing pop, pop, pop outside of my window,” Roberts said.
She immediately grabbed her kids and hit the floor. She was holding them down, trying to protect them from any stray bullet, but she was unsuccessful.
Her then 5-year-old son Malakai was shot in the head.
“It was really bad,” Roberts said.
The bullet fractured Malakai’s skull and damaged his sense of smell and taste. More notably, he’s now permanently blind because of the incident.
Since that day Roberts said Malakai has been dealing with the trauma of being a gun violence victim. A trauma she doesn’t want to see carry on with him as he continues throughout life.
So on Sunday, she came to the one city she believes can help her son cope, Louisville. She came to sign Malakai up for the Future Healers Program. A program run by U of L medical students and doctors helping kids up to age 13 deal with the trauma of being victim to gun violence.
The program allows the kids to participate in hands-on medical activities. Leaders believe it’s one way of showing kids how to be life savers and not life takers.
“Having Malakai a part of the program is going to be so amazing,” said Karen Udoh, a medical student with the program. “A lot of those kids are carrying a lot of trauma and heaviness entering that room too. Allowing them to kind of release that anger and that energy that they have, and translate it to something good, I think that is something Malakai will definitely benefit from.”
Malakai’s first session with the program will be next weekend and he already seems excited.
“There’s just everything to gain from it so why not?” Roberts said.
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