Ryland Ward, 5-year-old victim of the Texas church shooting in Sutherland Springs, survived surgery after being shot. He is still in critical condition.
One shot in the elbow. Two shots in the stomach. Two shots in the leg.
At 5 years old, Ryland Ward is among the youngest victims of the Sunday shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, which left 26 parishioners dead. And he was shot five times, his mother’s cousin, Heather Bradley, wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to cover the little boy’s medical expenses.
“Right now he is in critical condition on a breathing tube,” Bradley wrote. Bradley added that the child is “looking to make it,” but that it’s “going to be long journey.”
His stepmother and two sisters weren’t so lucky: All three were killed in the massacre, according to the Dallas Morning News.
“Ryland is the only one left,” Ryland’s 9-year-old cousin, McKinley Ward, told the Dallas Morning News.
The boy was attending services at First Baptist Church, just outside of San Antonio, with his stepmother and other family members on Sunday, according to the Daily Beast. The stepmother and sisters were among the dozens killed in the shooting spree.
“Nearly everyone [inside] had some type of injury,” Joe D. Tackitt Jr., the Wilson County sheriff, told reporters, the Washington Post reports . “I knew several people in there. It hasn’t really hit yet, but it will.”
Law enforcement officials have identified Devin Kelley, 26, as the shooter, as McClatchy reported Sunday. He was dressed in black tactical gear when he started using a Ruger AR assault-style rifle to spray the crowd of churchgoers with a stream of bullets, the Associated Press reports.
Ryland’s aunt and uncle live just down the street from the church, they told the Dallas Morning News.
Leslie Ward, the aunt, was outside the house putting together a yard sale Sunday morning. And then, all of the sudden, “bam bam bam!” she told the Dallas Morning News. It sounded like a machine gun going off at the church.
In addition to killing Ryland’s stepmother, the gunfire killed Ryland’s two sisters, 5 and 7, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Ryland is being treated at a San Antonio hospital, and has already gone through surgery, the Daily Beast reports.
So far, the online crowdfunding campaign to help cover his medical costs has raised more than $5,000 toward its $10,000 goal.
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