Ryland Ward, a 6-year-old boy who was among the dozens of parishioners who were shot on November 5, 2017, at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, has finally been sent home from the hospital, and he got to go there in style!
Last fall, when a gunman opened fire inside that rural Texas church, 26 parishioners were killed. Among the dead where Ryland’s stepmom and two sisters. Twenty additional people were injured, including Ryland, who had been shot five times. He sustained injuries which would require a number of surgeries, but he pulled through, and on Thursday, January 11, he rode home in the front seat of a firetruck.
Just days after the shooting incident, Ryland’s grandmother told NBC News, “His arm’s messed up where he was shot. His lower intestine, his bladder — it just goes on and on.” But, he was a fighter, and fireman Rusty Duncan, who was among some of the first people on the scene at the church, knew that from the moment he saw him. Seeing Ryland amidst the bloodshed, he told the news, “A little hand grabbed my pant leg. I just saw his eyes looking up at me and I knew I had to get him out of there.”