‘It’s a miracle’: Victim of Westside drive-by shooting defies the odds

Merrill Roberts says he’s grateful to be alive and not paralyzed after he was one of two innocent bystanders injured in a drive-by shooting on Santa Cruz’s Westside last month.

Roberts, 55, made it home to Oceanside in San Diego County in time for Thanksgiving after spending nearly a week hospitalized in a San Jose trauma center. However, intense muscle spasms put him back in the emergency room on Thanksgiving evening. The doctor who saw him was in near disbelief: The bullet had apparently headed straight for his spine before taking a last-second turn and missing his vertebrae completely.

“He was looking at me sideways, saying, ‘I studied your CT scans and X-rays, and I had to look up your news story because I couldn’t believe you’re here and I’m talking to you and you’re not a quadriplegic,’” Roberts said in an interview Tuesday. “Like, there’s no medical explanation.”

On Nov. 15, Roberts was celebrating his brother-in-law’s birthday with friends and family over dinner at the Parish Publick House near the intersection of Rankin Street and Almar Avenue. Roberts was in Santa Cruz with his son for a surfing and bonding trip. He had previously lived in San Jose.

Shortly after 8 p.m., shots rang out in what police allege is a gang-related shooting, striking both Roberts and his longtime friend Richard Brookes, who lives in San Jose. Brookes is a special education teacher who has worked at a number of schools throughout the greater Bay Area, including Aptos High School.

“It just came out of nowhere,” Roberts said of the shooting. 

Roberts was taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s trauma unit. “The first two days were pretty much a blur, to be honest,” he said.

He said he mostly remembers being hungry and thirsty as he awaited surgery on his arm — the bullet shattered his humerus bone before making its way into his torso. He said that nurses taping and setting his arm in a sling was “probably the most excruciating pain I’ve felt.” Even after a successful surgery two days after the shooting, Roberts’ doctors remained concerned about complications, including from the bullet, which was still lodged inside his body.

“It was an up-and-down roller coaster in the hospital,” Roberts said, adding that he was told that his hemoglobin was very low and the medical staff feared further issues. “They would run tests and not tell me what the test results were, aside from saying everything’s good right now.”

Fortunately for Roberts, he saw noticeable improvement over the next few days and convinced his doctors he was making progress. 

“I live in a two-story house, so they wanted me to prove to them that I could walk upstairs without any assistance, because I don’t have a bathroom or anything downstairs,” he said. He was released from hospital six days after the shooting. The bullet, however, will remain inside of him, just 1 centimeter from his aorta. Doctors told him it would be too risky to attempt to remove it.

Brookes did not return Lookout’s request for an interview before publication time, but his GoFundMe page shows that he spent four days in the hospital. He wrote that the bullet hit him in the back, fracturing his ribs and sending fragments near his diaphragm. He added that while he is grateful to be alive, he is still facing serious medical challenges.

“The road ahead is uncertain. I am awaiting a consultation with another surgeon to determine whether further surgery will be required,” he wrote. “As a teacher, taking time away from my classroom is the last thing I want, especially during this critical time of year when my students rely on me the most.”

Roberts has also set up a GoFundMe to cover medical expenses and other ongoing and future treatments.

His lung recovery is his biggest hurdle, as his lung capacity is still limited. However, he said he hit some big physical milestones this past weekend, walking two miles on Saturday and three more on Sunday.

“I was breathing hard like I was running a marathon, but I did it,” Roberts said, adding that he had to sleep most of the day on Monday to recover. “I think there are good days and bad days. On good days, you feel like you can do more than you can actually do but your body brings you back to reality.”

Still, Roberts has his head high: “I don’t feel sorry for myself, you know, I don’t really have the victim mentality,” he said. “I’m just grateful to be alive, to be here, and very grateful that I’m not a quadriplegic, which I probably should be, if not dead.”

Other than taking his recovery a day at a time and beginning physical therapy soon, he’s focusing most on his family. He hopes to be back in the water, at least paddling, by the spring: “We’ll have to see how realistic that is with my lungs and ribs.”

Despite his near-death experience, Roberts said that he has no ill will toward the two people arrested in the shooting. Santa Cruz police have charged Esdras Plascencia, 20, and a 16-year-old boy with attempted homicide, shooting at an inhabited dwelling or occupied vehicle and conspiracy to commit a crime.

“I’m glad they’re off the street, and I hope they’re not past the point of rehabilitation,” he said. “Life’s too short to have anger and animosity towards people.”

Although Roberts said he visits Santa Cruz only about once a year, getting shot won’t keep him from coming back: “For some people, it might, but not for me.” He added that the Parish Publick House owner reached out to him and offered to hold a fundraiser for his medical expenses.

Even with all the uncertainty ahead, the fact that he can look forward to the future at all is a gift. “It’s a miracle, man,” he said. “I know it’s kind of a touchy subject with some people, as far as religion goes, but I definitely think it was divine intervention.”

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