Man who paralyzed Calgarian in Barbados shooting pleaded guilty
The 65-year-old Calgary man was shot and paralyzed while on vacation in Barbados, leaving him confined to a wheelchair.
In February, Elliott's incident happened while his wife, brother, and sister-in-law stayed at a Christ Church vacation rental.
The Royal Barbados Police Force said two masked men stormed into the home in an attempted robbery.
After a short fight, Elliott was shot in the shoulder. He would later find out that the bullet severed his spine, leaving him partially paralyzed.
The surgeon approached me to say that there will never be a chance for me to walk again unless they come up with some new science,” Elliott said.
In total, Elliott says he spent 97 days in the hospital following the incident, during which time he struggled with accepting what had happened.
More than three months after a shooting during a Barbados vacation left him a person with paraplegia, Calgarian Ken Elliott has finally returned home.
It’s a home and a life that has been dramatically transformed since the retired city worker was shot during an attempted robbery on Feb. 22 at a holiday residence in the town of Christ Church on the Caribbean island.
But (Wednesday night) was the first time I was able to sleep without taking medication.”
Elliott’s Lake Bonavista home was reshaped by a nearly $100,000 renovation to accommodate his new life in a wheelchair. Upgrades to the four-level split — completed in one month — include two wheelchair lifts, ramps, removals of walls and a fireplace, bathroom alterations, widened doors, and new flooring.
“The contractors delayed job completions at other projects to make us a priority,” said Elliott, adding adult children also selflessly pitched in to ensure the transformation went as smoothly as possible.
Nearly half the cost of the renovations was covered by about $42,000 raised through GoFundMe.
That, and physiotherapists and others' efforts have made best of an otherwise demoralizing situation, one whose origins Elliott still recalls vividly.
“When I got shot, I hit a coffee table with my head, and the first thing I said was ‘I can’t feel my legs,’ ” he said.
Six days into the vacation, two men armed with a handgun and machete barged into their residence just after Elliott, Brooks, and family members had finished dinner and a game of Scrabble.
During the 20-second melee, a bullet sliced through Elliott’s lung and lodged in his spine, injuries that required surgery in Fort Lauderdale.
While he has use of his arms, Elliott said he has no feeling below his chest.
In March, police in Barbados arrested Alexander Patrick Alleyne and Travis Orin Campbell. They charged them with unlawfully wounding with intent to do serious bodily harm and firearms and armed robbery offenses.
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