IRVING PARK — Rocky Colon needs help getting in and out of bed after being shot multiple times earlier this month.
It’ll be a long time before Colon’s able to move on his own again, let alone return to his job in construction, his mother said.
“He can’t be left alone right now. He fell twice the other day and has been having blackouts,” Alice Colon said. “After they let him out of the hospital the first time, he had trouble breathing and had a lot of pain, so they took him back to the hospital for seven hours.”
Rocky Colon was shot Dec. 13 while he was driving in the 3600 block of West Irving Park Road. Someone in a black car pulled up next to him and fired shots, hitting him in his back and leg, police and his family said. He was hospitalized in serious condition immediately afterward.
Police were still investigating the shooting and no one was in custody Tuesday.
Colon’s fiancée was also in the car that day but was not wounded, she and Alice Colon confirmed at the time. Block Club is not identifying her.
Colon’s fiancée has taken time off from work to help him recover from his injuries, Alice Colon said.
Colon has been released from the hospital and is recovering at home. But the shooting couldn’t have happened at a worse time. He fears his six children — five boys and a girl, ages 1 to 7 — won’t have a good Christmas because of his wounds, his mom said.
“He’s so so worried about his kids. That’s the main thing for him: to make sure they can enjoy Christmas, still,” Alice Colon said.
Colon’s family launched a GoFundMe over the weekend, asking for help covering his medical bills, rent and the cost of repairing the car damaged in the shooting, among other things. Alice Colon created the fundraiser with a $5,000 goal after Irving Park neighbors reached out asking how they could help.
“It’s just very humbling, and we’re very appreciative that people wanted to know how to help us,” Alice Colon said.
Colon grew up on the North Side and attended Avondale-Logandale Elementary, 3212 W. George St., and Schurz High School, 3601 N. Milwaukee Ave.
For the past five years he’s worked in commercial construction, doing carpentry as well as laying down carpeting and flooring, his mother said.
She described her youngest son as great listener and the person who’s always making jokes.
“He just loves to try to make other people happy. You know, even if he might be having a little bad day himself, he’s the type of person that will still try to make people around him smile,” she said. “He’s such a good person. When he sees a homeless person he always gives them a couple of dollars. He’s just wonderfully generous.”
Colon’s also spontaneous. A few years ago, he pulled up to his mother’s home with his children and fiancée one Friday and told her to pack a bag for the weekend.
“I didn’t know where we were going, but once we’re on the road he’s telling me he’s surprising me with a weekend trip to Wisconsin with the kids,” she said. “I don’t really travel like that much since I got older, but he just wanted to do something nice for me. We laughed and had such a great time.
“Rocky’s time is consumed with his children and his fiancée.”
Even before launching the fundraiser, Alice Colon said she’s heard of another example of the willingness of strangers to help her son.
After the shooting, a witness told her a man walking his dog rushed to Colon’s side and tried to stop his bleeding while first responders were on their way. She was told the good Samaritan might have been a retired firefighter.
“It’s just another example of the neighborhood stepping up for him,” Alice Colon said. “I don’t know who he is. But if he reads this, I want him to know how thankful I am he jumped into action for my son.”
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