US parade shooting: 8-year-old Cooper paralysed from waist down, twin hit by shrapnel

An 8-year-old boy, Cooper Roberts, is paralysed from the waist down after he was shot in the chest during the shooting at Highland Park, Chicago, while his twin brother was hit by shrapnel.

An eight-year-old boy who attended the Independence Day parade during the Highland Park shooting was shot in the chest and is now paralysed from the waist down, the family informed reporters on Thursday. The boy, Cooper Roberts, suffered several significant injuries, including a severed spinal cord while his twin brother Luke was hit by shrapnels.

Family spokesperson Anthony Loizzi told CNN that the twins loved the parade before a gunman started firing a semi-automatic rifle into the crowd from a rooftop. The incident left seven dead with several others, including the Roberts family, injured.

The boys’ mother Keely Roberts, "was shot in the leg and foot area" and underwent several surgeries, the spokesperson added. Loizzi said Cooper has undergone several surgeries since the shooting and is still in the hospital sedated and on a ventilator. He is in a critical but stable condition.

"It's going to be a new normal for him moving forward. It sounds (like) he'll have significant issues moving forward, especially with walking,” said the family spokesperson.

Loizzi added that before the shooting, Cooper was "a very active child who loves soccer, riding his bike, baseball and football".