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WARNING: This article contains graphic images and explicit details of a mass shooting.
For Maya Gebala’s parents, any movement their 12-year-old makes — even a tiny leg twitch — is reason to rejoice after their child was airlifted to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
The Grade 7 student was shot at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Tuesday in an attack that left eight people dead, including students, an educator and the shooter’s mother and half-brother.
Maya was airlifted to B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver and has been fighting for her life since.
Her parents, Cia Edmonds and David Gebala, say Maya suffered at least three gunshot wounds to her head and neck. On Thursday, she made her first movements since undergoing emergency surgery, moving her left hand and leg, and coughing
Her parents say doctors stopped sedating her, using only painkillers, to see how she would react.
Edmonds, 40, says she feels blessed her daughter survived and is urging Canadians to support all the families whose children or loved ones were killed or critically injured.
Social media posts documenting Maya’s progress have received thousands of comments. People have been moved by the image of the tween grinning in her hockey helmet, juxtaposed with the devastating reality of her bruised and bandaged face. A GoFundMe campaign has raised thousands of dollars for her care.
It is painful for Maya’s parents to see this tenacious hockey player, who taught herself how to walk on stilts, now motionless.
“She’s way too stubborn to let this…” David Gebala said, his voice trailing off as he sobbed. “She’ll pull through this; I believe that she will.”
He says the thousands of well wishes from around the world have helped. But Maya’s parents are also troubled by social media posts that politicize this tragedy.
Gebala and Edmonds, his former partner, say they are frustrated that some of the posts have attracted angry comments directed at the mother of the shooter, Jennifer Strang, who was also killed in the massacre.
Edmonds says she was friends with Strang and used to babysit the shooter — 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar — as a child.
Edmonds told CBC News she weeps for all the people affected by the tragedy that unfolded in Tumbler Ridge, including Strang.
Maya Gebala remains at Vancouver Children’s Hospital after being airlifted from Tumbler Ridge, B.C., following the deadly mass shooting on Monday. Her parents say they’re encouraged by small movements in their 12-year-old’s limbs, although doctors say she is still fighting for her life after sustaining gunshot wounds.
Edmonds says she watched the single mother, who she said worked long shifts at a nearby mine, fight to help her child.
Edmonds says at one point, Van Rootselaar tried to light a mattress on fire “and burn the house down.” She said the teen had been hospitalized several times with mental health issues.
“People are trying to politicize what this is about,” Edmonds said “It’s not about guns. It’s not about [being trans] … It’s about mental health. It’s about a lack of resources.”
“[Strang] really — I truly believe that in her heart — did everything she could to try to help … I know that she struggled.”
‘I believe she’s been shot’
Tuesday began as a normal day for Maya, a first-year student at the school. The 12-year-old was excited to get to class to work on a catapult project and planned to drop by her mom’s tattoo and clothing shop at lunch, but she didn’t show up.
Edmonds was working on a client when the call came from a family friend. The school was locked down.
At first, Edmonds says, she didn’t panic. But then she says another friend snuck past the roadblocks and saw two armed police officers run into the school building, so Edmonds rushed over.
She found a group of parents parked in the recreation centre parking lot. The father of another student showed her a text message.
“He says, ‘Dad, I’m fine.’ And I said, ‘Ask him how Maya is.’ And then he shows me again, and it says, ‘Maya’s been dragged out, and I believe she’s been shot.'”
Edmonds raced to the town’s health centre and, through the glass, saw medical staff cutting off the girl’s clothing. But Edmonds was held back and told the victims hadn’t been identified yet.
“I said, ‘That’s my baby in there!'”
Both of Maya’s parents are unclear exactly what happened inside the school. They’ve heard that fellow students rushed to save Maya after bullets hit her teacher and then her, striking her in the head.
“There’s a bullet … that went through her earlobe and then through the head and out the back, and then one was stuck in her throat,” said Edmonds.
So far, surgeons have warned that Maya may not recover.
“They had told us there’s nothing that we can do … so lay with her,” she said. “It’s almost been 48 hours and she’s still fighting. She’s so strong.”
Gebala says he’s hopeful after a few “incredible improvements” — hearing his child cough for the first time and seeing her move her hand and leg.
He put an arm around Maya’s mother as they sat on a bench near the hospital, fighting back tears and finding strength in the waves of support pouring in from around the world.
“I just can’t wait till she opens her eyes, or smiles, or says, ‘Mama.’ I just want her to say ‘Mama,'” said Edmonds.
“If she said ‘Mama’ one time, just one time…”
If you’re affected by this story, you can find mental health support through resources in your province or territory.
