LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A 19-year-old's dreams of becoming a Marine are now on hold after being hurt in a shooting last week.
It happened in a parking lot in Lakewood. Family members told 9NEWS that Isaac Magdaleno was hurt in the shooting.
"It was heart wrenching because it’s a call that nobody wants to get," said Bobbie Moreno, Magdaleno's sister, on Friday. "I want to be grateful and thankful to God that he's OK and he's going to be OK but there's still that thought in that back of my mind that he could not be here."
On Wednesday, July 17, Lakewood Police were called at around 12:50 a.m. to a parking lot near South Sheridan Boulevard in West Cedar Street. Moreno said Magdaleno was shot in his car.
"You see a young kid like my brother, he’s 19, the victim of a shooting but people don’t think victim of a shooting, they think involvement, and that’s not necessarily true," Moreno said. "My brother’s a good kid."
Moreno said her brother was not the intended target but was the only one hurt. He was rushed to Saint Anthony Hospital, where he remains. Moreno explained a bullet grazed the top of Magdaleno's head. Doctors eventually had to perform surgery to fix a skull fracture.
"He has a blood clot in the front of his head and some brain bleeding that thankfully is pretty stable," she explained. "The vein the fracture was compressing, releasing any pressure could have made him bleed out and he was very high risk for a heart attack or death at that point."
Moreno is relieved none of that happened. Her brother, a recent high school graduate, is alive — but his dreams are hanging by a thread.
"Yes, he was going to boot camp, his dream is to be a Marine, that's what he wanted to do," she said.
Lakewood Police could not say much about the shooting, but they did say a minor was arrested. Moreno hopes more parents talk to their kids about gun violence and choosing a different path.
"How do we have all these underage people with access to guns?" she asked. "A lot of these kids aren't thinking, like you're taking life, you could have taken a life, that's serious."
Moreno said her brother did speak with his recruiter and they say there is a possibility he could still go to boot camp once he recovers. She said Magdaleno is being transferred to a rehabilitation facility soon.
The family is raising funds to offset the steep hospital bills they are expecting.