‘Just blessed to be here’: 23-year-old left paralyzed after Renton shooting
The victim of an apparent random drive-by shooting in Renton from a few weeks ago is ready to speak out now.
Christopher Harp, 23, was walking to the store with his cousins on Jan. 18, around 9:30pm, when someone in a car opened fire and shot him multiple times.
“It felt like almost I got tased at first and I just felt down and I couldn’t move my legs,” Harp explained from the hospital bed.
At that very moment, Harp’s life changed forever. It’s also one he remembers vividly.
“I got hit 4 times, I just remember being hit and falling and the car driving off,” he recalled.
He said out of nowhere, a car pulled up and started shooting.
“My head is usually on a swivel, especially at nighttime when I’m walking alone or anybody. So the one time I wasn’t, this happened, and it’s really a shame,” Harp explained. “Guess a random car saw us and thought we were somebody else and let it go. And here I am.”
It’s a possible mistake that nearly cost Harp his life. In just seconds, those bullets shattered parts of his spine leaving him paralyzed.
“They took out a kidney. A part of my pancreas was hit, so they had to cut off a piece of that. My spleen was hit, so that’s damaged. I have a metal rod from about my knee up to my hip and a screw in my femur. I have a bullet in my foot they don’t know if they’re ever going to take out,” he said.
Harp’s positive attitude is helping him get through it.
“I could have died that night. So, I mean, feeling like, sorry for myself, I feel like, is kind of out of the question because I’m just blessed to be here,” he said.
He’s now on the road to recovery, trying to navigate this new life.
“Hopefully we can get me, like, a handicap accessible van. I just turned 23. So I was getting my independence, so now I can’t use my legs, won’t be able to drive anymore. It’d be nice to have something like that.”
A GoFundMe has been made if you’d like to donate toward Harp’s situation. It will help with building a wheelchair accessible home, rehabilitation and all the steps to recovery once he’s out of the hospital.
As for his case, Renton Police say there have been no arrests made. They are searching for a black 4-door sedan.
If you have any information, you’re asked to call Renton PD.
