Video courtesy of CNN
TEHAMA COUNTY (KRON) — Monday marked the first day back to school for some Northern California students following a shooting rampage that killed five people in Rancho Tehama two weeks ago.
6-year-old Alejandro Hernandez ws shot twice by the gunman, and says he doesn’t ever want to go back to that school.
“They say that he was really lucky because if it would’ve been in this side, it would’ve hit his heart,” said his mother Angelica Monroy.
Instead, one bullet hit Alejandro in his right lung and the other in his foot.
The doctor says it’s remarkable he’s in little pain and at home, less than two weeks after being shot.
They still haven’t decided what to do with the bullet that remains lodged in his chest.
“He asked me, ‘Mom, what about the bullet that I have here? Are they going to take it out?'” Angelica said.
As Rancho Tehama Elementary students made their way back to school Monday…Alejandro sat in the safety of his home, definitively saying he won’t be returning.
“He’s scared. If he doesn’t feel okay to go, I’m not going to push him to go,” Angelica says.
Alejandro is not the only one who’s traumatized from the rampage.
Angelica says their entire family of 11 won’t be living in the small town much longer.
“I want to move out,” she said. “It’s hard for me to see everything — the school.”
Just steps away from their home is the crash site where Kevin Neal killed another neighbor.
There are too many places like this, that remind the family of the day little Alejandro was almost taken too.
“I felt the worse, like maybe, if he would’ve been dead in there, you know? Imagine that? No I don’t want to go there,” Angelica said.
She says for the most part Alejandro seems happy, but doesn’t want to leave home, or even eat.
A GoFundMe account for Alejandro’s family has already raised more than $26,000 since the shooting.
Their goal, which is what is needed mostly to cover medical expenses, is $50,000.CNN contributed to this reportWHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON: