Mom of NYC teen basketball player left paralyzed by stray bullet hopes he will walk again after feeling sensation in feet
Dozens of people in Brooklyn already know that the girl who calls herself Nana Effah Donkor has a fragile dream: that one day she can stand up and walk again. The 16‑year‑old, who was a star on the Far Rockaway Seahorses court, was caught in a tragic crossfire that left him paralyzed.
On Sunday, after a basketball tournament, Nana was hanging out with a friend at a bus stop on Avenue J near East 16th Street. A fellow churchgoer walked past and greeted him, but moments later a group of three teens fired their guns. Nana remembered one of the shooters shouting, “Yo, that’s him!” before the shooter ran away, saying the attack was aimed at someone else who “didn’t even know the kid.”
The bullet struck Nana’s spinal cord. He collapsed, and, as his mom, Danielle Boakye, explained when she called the hospital, the blast made his legs feel cold and numb. She said the doctors advised against removing the fragment because it could cause more damage. Despite that, a few days later he had some feeling return in his feet, which gave her a glimmer of hope.
Danielle told reporters that Nana is a hardworking student who excels both on the court and in the classroom. She says, “That’s why I say I have hope. I hope he will walk again, it’s just a matter of time.”
The young man knows little of the intended target, which police suspect was a gang member. When asked, Nana replied, “I go to church with him. That’s all I know about him.”
His mother can’t wipe the anger off her face when she says, “They should stop. If I had the power…children wouldn’t have access to guns.”
At this time, the suspects have not been apprehended. In the meantime, the small community of Brooklyn remains on edge, hoping for the boy’s healing and for a safer tomorrow.
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