LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Friends and family members of the 5-year-old boy and his mother both injured in a drive-by shooting in Lexington have set up fundraisers for the boy who they say will now need special medical attention for the rest of his life.
Dyana Bowen, a housemate for the mother, Cacy Roach Roberts, provided LEX 18 with an update on the condition of the boy, Malakai Roberts, on Tuesday.
Bowen said Malakai was shot through the head when multiple bullets were fired into the Roberts' home at about 2:13 a.m. Monday while they were visiting with family on Catera Trace. The mother was shot in the left bicep. Both are currently undergoing treatment at the University of Kentucky Hospital.
Malakai has been in a medically induced coma since the shooting. He has had one of his eyes removed and Bowen said doctors are deciding whether the other eye will need to be removed also.
Bowen said the family is hopeful there will be no significant brain injury, but that Malakai could lose his sense of smell because of the damage to his sinuses. Malakai is expected to be woken up from the medically induced coma sometime on Tuesday.
Ten bullets were fired total during the shooting, Bowen said -- five into a car and five into the house. According to a GoFundMe page set up for the family, Malakai was asleep in his mother's bed at the time of the shooting.
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
"Cacy and Sean (Roberts) shouldn't have to be thinking of expenses at a time like this, but Malakai is going to need things that no one can even begin to imagine yet," family friend Kristi Joseph said on a GoFundMe page set up for the family. "Please know that all prayers, text, and phone calls are all appreciated."
The GoFundMe pages set up for Malakai and his family can be found here and here.
