Gilbert Mata was in one of the classrooms at Rob Elementary School, where the shooter killed 19 children and two teachers. Although the wound on his leg healed, the experience changed their child forever, Corina Camacho and Michael Martinez told CNN.
“I just miss dancing around, picking on my little brother, singing,” Camacho said. “He still sings, but it’s different.”
According to a transcript of Gilbert’s FBI interview summarized by his lawyer, the shooter came in with what Gilbert described as terrifying music blazing from his phone and said, “It’s time to die … you’re mine.”
Gilbert’s teachers defended him as he crouched under a table, but a bullet that struck one of his friends ricocheted and struck Gilbert in the leg, according to his lawyer, Stephanie Sherman.
However, many of his friends died in the attack, and one of the first things he did after reuniting with his father was to tell him all the names of those killed and where they died.
His best friend was one of those who died right in front of him, and every day now he wants to comfort his friend’s mother, Martinez said.
The experience stripped his son of his innocence and left him with post-traumatic stress disorder – a difficult thing for an adult military veteran, let alone a 10-year-old child, to deal with, Martinez said.
“We are afraid to take him back to school. He says he is ready, but when he goes to where they take care of him during the day, he just freaks out, panics,” Martinez said. “We really don’t know what we’re doing right now. But we’re just going with the flow, trying to figure out what Gilbert needs.
The boy easily gets angry, unlike before, and tries to work on it, says his father.
Sherman is working on lawsuits against the gun manufacturer and others. She says she partially hopes to receive compensation for the boy’s therapy.
“My job is to provide a path forward for my client, and that’s a bridge to healing resources, mental health care, money,” Sherman said. “How do you pay for that?” PTSD is a life sentence and requires therapy, maybe medication, maybe specialized therapy, exposure therapy, not just talking to someone, but actually going through events and rearranging your brain so you don’t have to be afraid. “
Sherman also believes they may have a lawsuit against arms maker Daniel Defense. “Yes, it’s a civil right to bear arms, but we also live in a society,” she told CNN.
“You have the model and practice of 18-year-olds doing mass shootings,” she added. “I believe I can make a product liability argument that you are making a dangerous product and putting it in the wrong hands, like everything else.
Daniel Defense did not respond to CNN’s request for comment, but issued a statement describing the shooting as an “evil act.”
Sherman does not allow Gilbert to be interviewed because “it works a lot,” she said.
Like many people in the country, Gilbert’s parents wonder how the authorities allowed the shooter to go wild for more than an hour and a half before intervening and killing him.
They were among concerned mothers and fathers who waited in front of the school for at least 45 minutes, waiting to find out if their child was alive.
When Gilbert was taken out of the building, he was transported, bloodied, to a bus. Neistov, Carmacho and Martinez called him to crawl out of the bus window and “he just jumped out,” Martinez said.
“We took it, I caught it,” Martinez said. And after someone checked his legs, “we flew to the hospital,” he added.
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