By Jim Haley
Herald Writer
EVERETT — A 25-year-old Everett man who was mysteriously gunned down Oct. 22 in his parents’ Rucker Hill driveway is on the verge of being released from Harborview Medical Center.
Jason Hunter will now undergo intensive physical therapy at another hospital for the injuries that likely left him paralyzed from near the waist down, said his father, Dan Hunter.
He’s been at Harborview since Everett police and medics found him severely injured with five gunshot wounds. He was attacked by an unknown assailant just after he got out of his car that evening in the 1000 block of Charles Avenue. Jason Hunter was shot twice in the arms, once in the upper leg and twice in the back.
Earlier this week, doctors planned an operation to remove an abscess in the area where the his spleen had been removed, Dan Hunter said. But doctors later determined a bladder infection was interfering with his recovery, he said.
The move to another medical facility could come today or early next week, the father said.
Meanwhile, Everett police said nobody is in custody. Dan Hunter said detectives are pursuing some leads that have developed since a sketch of the assailant was released early this month.
No motive for the shooting was readily apparent, said Dan Hunter, a retired Boeing employee.
On another front, friends have started a Jason Hunter Web site to keep his many friends and acquaintances apprised of his progress. It can be found at www.jasonhunter.org. Others have begun a fund to raise money to help the family remodel the home so the young man can use his wheelchair there.
"The whole purpose of the fund is to help with expenses the family wasn’t anticipating before this happened," said close family friend Susan Reichmann, a former resident of the Rucker Hill neighborhood where Jason Hunter was shot.
It’s also an outlet for his friends to get involved.
"So many people have said, ‘I want to help.’ This is a way people can participate," Reichmann said.
A variety of other fund-raising efforts are likely over the next few months, she said, including a golf tournament, 5-kilometer run and an auction.
Jason Hunter is a 1994 Everett High School graduate who spent four years in the Navy. At the time of the shooting, he was working days and attending night school at Edmonds Community College.
He had just gotten out of class and arrived to visit his parents when the shooter came out of the shadows of the home’s carport and started firing.
Jason Hunter used his cell phone to summon aid after the assailant fled along a footpath in the direction of Federal Avenue.
You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447 or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.
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