GREENVILLE, S.C., Sept. 30 (UPI) — Jacob Hall, a 6-year-old boy shot at his South Carolina elementary school, sustained a major brain injury due to blood loss and has been placed in life support, his family said.
Jacob is receiving treatment in the intensive car unit at Greenville Memorial Hospital. The boy was shot in the leg on Wednesday by a 14-year-old who opened fire at Townville Elementary School first-grade students who were on the playground.
Jacob was in critical condition as of Thursday night.
“Jacob is a very sick little boy and is fighting for his life. Due to the massive blood loss he has sustained a major brain injury,” the family said in a statement. “Jacob is in very critical condition, and we are hanging on every second.”
In a Facebook statement, South Carolina State Rep. Alan Clemmons, who said he was a family friend, said the bullet “ripped through little Jacob’s femoral artery,” adding that Jacob died twice and was revived twice. Clemmons called on people to join him in “fervent prayer for little Jacob’s recovery” as he faces multiple surgeries.
Gerald Gambrell, one of Jacob’s older brothers, said the family is “waiting and hoping for a miracle.”
“He’s a wonderful kid. He doesn’t deserve any of this at all. No child in this world deserves this,” Gambrell said. “It’s just heartbreaking and miserable that it happens to be my little brother.”
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley flew to Greenville to meet with the family and also called the mother of another injured student and the students’ teacher who was shot in the shoulder as she tried to get the children to safety during the incident.
Friends and family describe Jacob as a happy, loving 6-year-old who prayed every night for the people in his life.
“He comes in Sunday school every Sunday morning with just a smile on his face,” Tim Marcengill, Oakdale Baptist Church’s associate pastor, told The Greenville News. “He’ll make you laugh and tell you he loves you. And he loves the Lord, and he knew that the Lord loves him.
The suspected shooter, a teenager who officials said was home schooled and possibly bullied, is scheduled to appear at an Anderson County juvenile court on Friday.
The suspect’s father, Jeffrey Dewitt Osborne, 47, was found dead at home on Wednesday after the shooting but officials have not said the teen is suspected in that death — adding that Osborne’s death was under investigation.
NBC News reports Osborne died from multiple gunshot wounds from a .40-caliber weapon.
