Photo provided George Perez Jr. keeps watch over his son Kingston who is recovering in Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis from a gunshot wound.
A 3-year-old injured in a shooting in Hope earlier this month is conscious and making progress in his recovery, according to his father.
Kingston Perez, 3, is being treated at the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. His father, George Perez Jr., said Thursday afternoon that his son’s vitals had been in good shape for the past four or five days, and an MRI showed that there was no damage beyond what initially incurred in the shooting.
Also, while it was initially his understanding that the whole left side of Kingston’s head might have been damaged, the MRI has shown that there is less damage to the area than they thought.
“But he’s still healing and fighting and with coming off his medication that they had him on for sedation and stuff like that — and which, he is officially fully off of everything as of today,” Perez said. “He is starting show signs that his body is, his body and mind is capable of protecting itself, healing itself, doing what it’s supposed to do as far as keeping your temperature down or draining fluid from your head so your head don’t swell, regulating his blood pressure, breathing on his own, things like that, which is great.”
Kingston was expected to be off a ventilator later that day.
It’s unclear how long Kingston will continue to be in the hospital or what the long-term impact of the injury will be, his father said.
“They haven’t been specific with us on which part of the brain or what has been damaged either,” he said. “They just showed us what was damaged and said that it was going to be a long journey of rehab ahead of us, but he was definitely going to make a recovery as far as life or death.”
Perez’s other children have been staying with family while he’s at the hospital with Kingston. He’s also been bringing them up to visit and was able to stay with them one night, but added that it’s been a difficult situation.
When asked how it feels to be spending Father’s Day with his son in the hospital this year, Perez replied, “I’m a father every day, so the one day that somebody else wants to recognize it doesn’t mean nothing to me, if that makes sense. I don’t need other people to recognize that I’m a father when I know I am every day and my kids love me every day, and that’s really all that matters to me.”
Kingston and his father were injured in a shooting on June 1. Suspect Robbie Perez, brother to George Perez Jr., has been charged in Bartholomew Circuit Court with attempted murder and two counts of aggravated battery, according to a joint news release from the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department and the county prosecutor’s office.
Sheriff’s department spokesman Sgt. Dane Duke said investigators found that the shooting was the result of a longstanding feud between the two Perez brothers.
Robbie Perez is being treated for a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chin at Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis, with a corrections officer stationed on-site, said Sheriff Chris Lane. He will be transported to the Bartholomew County Jail upon release from the hospital.
Investigators said that the suspect shot himself near Whiteland following a pursuit by Franklin police on the morning of June 2.
