Paralyzed teen on shooter: 'I hate what he did but I don't hate him'

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/10419973-418/paralyzed-teen-on-shooter-i-hate-what-he-did-but-i-dont-hate-him.html

BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Criminal Courts Reporter [e-mail] February 3, 2012 6:12PM

Ondelee Perteet’s dreams of becoming the next Michael Phelps were shattered when the high school swimmer was shot and paralyzed at a West Side birthday party.

No longer able to play sports or chase girls like a typical teenage boy, Perteet, who is now mostly confined to a wheelchair, feels like a “baby all over again” since he’s been forced to wear diapers and relearn how to move his body in painful therapy sessions.

“I’m a kid, at least I was; now I have to be a grown man at a very young age,” Perteet, 17, said in his victim impact statement that was read in court before the teenager responsible for his debilitating injures was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday. snip

“It’s been hard to forgive somebody that tried to kill me,” Pertreet said. “It’s not easy but I had to. I had no choice. That’s the only way I can heal, the only way I can move forward. I can’t hate. I hate what he did but I don’t hate him.”

[abowsh]

1. Terrible story, but I love the young man's attitude.

Maybe it's because I haven't experienced something like this; I have never, nor has my family, been victim of a crime like this. However, I don't understand how people hold such grudges. Everyone has somebody that loves them. Seeking the death penalty for a murder may make the victim's family feel better, but it also may leave a child without a father, or a mother without a son. Nothing will bring the victim back.

Like I said, maybe my tune would change if a family member was killed, but I like to think it wouldn't. An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.