Call for Action team helps robbery victim get around again

(WXYZ) - It’s a horrifying moment that Kevin Roote of Dearborn Heights will never forget.

The night of June 19, 2012, at ten o’clock on the dot, Kevin was walking into the Dearborn Heights Liquor and Wine Shoppe, when he came face to face with an armed robber carrying a .40 caliber handgun.

“I was face to face with this guy wearing a red bandana across his face, and he says ‘get in here and get down on the floor,’ and when I said something back to him, he drew his pistol and shot me right in the leg,” Kevin says.  “I went down like a sack of potatoes into a pool of blood.”

Kevin says that bullet was so powerful it nearly blew the bottom of his right leg off.

”I thought it looked like a shark attack, honestly, there was so much blood,” Kevin remembers.

Almost two weeks later, with staples and a steel rod screwed into his leg, Kevin - a former star baseball player in high school - has been told by doctors he may never be able to walk normally again.

To make matters worse, Kevin, a mason and brick layer by trade, is now unable to work.  He has no health insurance.   And he can’t afford the one thing he needs most, a wheelchair to get around in.

So, Kevin called the Call for Action team for help.

That’s when we brought in the mobility experts at Wright and Fillippis in Rochester.

 For 65-years Wright and Fillippis has specialized in making people who can’t move mobile and active again.

 Now, thanks to the wheelchair team at Wright and Fillippis, we are going to give Kevin a high tech, brand new wheelchair with 20 inch wheels.

Right away, Kevin sits down and breathes a sigh of relief.  You can tell by his reaction, that Kevin is thrilled to be moving around and off of the couch for the first time in more than 10 days.

 And he has high hopes for the future.

“I will be playing softball again next summer and I hope to be back to work by the end of this year,” Kevin says smiling broadly.