Streamwood shooting victim finds recovery a long road

The basketball hoop hangs low and lonely over the driveway of the new home of 18-year-old Jess Outlaw.

Since Sept. 6, a wheelchair has mostly confined Outlaw, separating him from his old school, his old neighborhood, his old friends. Two bullets fired at close range outside of his old home in Streamwood paralyzed him from the waist down.

He was shot as he was racing a friend's new bicycle near McKool and Miller avenues, and his mother was among the first to find her son wounded on the ground. The gunshots broke his left arm, damaged his back and forced doctors to stick two feeding tubes into his chest.

"I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time," Outlaw said.

The gunman followed Outlaw on a bicycle until he got within range and began firing. Police charged Adolfo Perez-Arreguin, 17, of Hanover Park, with attempted murder, arresting him at Bartlett High School. Authorities called the shooting a gang initiation.

Jess said he attended middle school with the Perez-Arreguin, the teen charged with the shooting.

While the courts sort the case out, bullet fragments remain in Jess' back, but he's slowly regaining mobility. He's needed to bulk up his arms to roll his wheelchair.

Jess spent his birthday Sept. 14 mending at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. "I was in pain every day - but I guess now everything's fine," he said, dejected at his slow physical progress even though the pain has diminished.

It's still unclear if Outlaw will ever walk normally again. He goes to rehab three times a week and fastens on leg braces to try walking. It's a far cry from the pickup basketball games he regularly played at the Streamwood Park District. He wonders if he'll ever be able to dunk.

"I feel like I've grown since I've been in this chair," he said, seeing the additional height as an advantage if only his limbs would cooperate.

His mother, Yolanda Outlaw, quit her job as a call center customer service representative to stay at home and care for her son.

While the Illinois Department of Human Services and the federal Supplementary Security Income program have helped, money remains scarce. A chairlift would cost $3,000, and Outlaw also needs bars for the bathroom to grab and exit the bathtub. Yolanda Outlaw has established an account at Chase Bank for donations.

Even with the cash crunch, moving to a safer area was important to the family. Yolanda, who spent most of her 37 years in Streamwood, Jess and his 16-year-old brother Nico moved in December. Jess' father lives in Indiana.

Yolanda Outlaw dotes on Jess, making barbecue chicken dinners, but that hasn't stopped him from dropping more than 20 pounds. He now weighs in at about 130 pounds, giving him a slender figure at more than 6 feet tall.

Now, he's completing high school online, and if it goes as planned, he'll earn his diploma in June from Bartlett High School. The irony is Outlaw has never been inside the school. He was enrolled at Streamwood High School before the move. He'd rather not attend graduation.

"I'd rather have them mail the diploma to me," Outlaw said. "I don't know anyone there; they'd probably think I was lost."

Outlaw's mother is proud of her son and wants him to attend. "He's stronger than what he thinks he is," she said.

Friends from time to time drop in to say hello. They play video games and listen to music. They ask him what it felt like when he was shot. The paralysis happened as soon as the bullets struck.

"I couldn't feel much," Outlaw said.

Outlaw is determined to walk again. There's no complaining about his situation. He praises the staff at the rehabilitation center.

"They teach me basically everything that I need to know," he said. "And I'm young; it wasn't so hard for me."

Jess' perfect world is one where he runs a nightclub filled with celebrities like rappers Lil Wayne and Gucci Mane. For his mother, the ideal scenario is that her son starts walking normally in a year.

Meanwhile, Perez-Arreguin faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm. He's in jail on a $500,000 bond. He's next scheduled to appear March 23 at Cook County Court in Rolling Meadows. No trial date has been set.

• An account to help the family with Jess' expenses has been set up at Chase Bank.