Sherman Spears was shot at a friend’s apartment complex in East Oakland in 1989. Someone from the neighborhood had been seeking revenge on his friend, but found Spears first. He was struck by three bullets and hit his head as he fell to the ground, leaving him paralyzed.
As the 18-year-old lay in a hospital bed recuperating, he felt disoriented and scared about his future. His parents were distraught, his friends wanted revenge, and he didn’t feel like he could relate to the doctors and nurses. “I really didn’t have time to process what I was going through,” Spears recalled. “There was nobody I could really talk with about what was happening to me.”
