Teen Footballer Fights for Chance to Walk Again After Being Shot

A teenage dream is now hanging in the balance tonight. Sixteen-year-old Orell Reyes, a promising footballer from Pomona Village, is fighting for his future after a brazen shooting left him paralyzed from the waist down. Just moments after leaving football training, gunfire shattered his world, and today, he remains bedridden with a bullet still lodged in his back. Now, his family is making a heartfelt plea for help to get him life-changing treatment in Mérida, Mexico. Shane Williams has his story.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

Just days ago, sixteen-year-old Orell Reyes was sprinting across the football field, chasing his dreams. Tonight, he’s fighting a very different battle. The Pomona teenager now lies confined to a bed, unable to move from the waist down after gunfire shattered his world on June second.

 

ASP Stacy Smith, Staff Officer

“No motive has been established. However, we are not of the view that any of the injured individuals was the target.”

 

The nightmare began just after Reyes left football practice, when he stopped to buy drinks for his cousins and gunmen on a motorcycle ambushed them. He woke up in the hospital to a devastating new reality.

 

Orell Reyes, Shooting Victim

“I got pain only in my two hand. From my waist to my foot, dead, dead, dead, pops. I can’t feel nothing. But the pain just deh in my hand. I gone da hospital, and they gave me a little couple drips and two injection that calm down the pain a lee while pops.”

 

It’s been heartbreaking for Kimberly Estero to watch her teenage son endure such pain.

 

Kimberly Estero, Mother of Shooting Victim

“Ih hard. Really, really hard and rough. I don’t like to get emotional, but don’t want to see my baby in this pain. It hurt me a lot. I can’t help ah. So I’d really ask Belize from near and far, whoever can help me so I can take my son out of the country, I will really appreciate it. Even prayers, whatever. I need my baby to come out of this pain and, you know, get back on his foot again. He’s very young, just sixteen.”

 

For Orell, the dream has changed; now, he just wants the chance to walk again.

 

Orell Reyes

“I just want a little help to go outside. ‘Cause, like, they told me that they can’t take out the bullet in my back. Here in Belize, ’cause da wa fifty-fifty chance, right? So I ask if they could please help me so I can go outside so they can take out this bullet out of my back, pops, ’cause I tired of laying on my back, pops. So I just really appreciate and ask anybody if they could help so I can at least stand up and walk back pops.”

 

His mother says despite the uncertainty, she continues to encourage her son to keep believing.

 

Kimberly Estero

“He say, “Ma, I want come up out of this.” He say, “Ma, I tired of this pain ma.” He say, “I want come out from here.” Say, “I don’t want to be dead pan this bed like that for the rest of my life.” And I tell him, “Baby,” I tell him, “God give you another chance. God noh wah left you ya like this. You just have to got faith, pray, and God will help me and you out of this.”

 

The family is now racing against time, hoping to get Orell to Mérida for specialized care they can’t access here, and they’re calling on the public to help make it happen. Shane Williams for News Five.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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