Shooting victim Alden Gibbs Jr. stays positive with help of friends, Eastern Washington teammates

Super Bowl Sunday found Alden Gibbs Jr. the way it always does: surrounded by friends.

Twenty-five of them gathered last weekend, but they weren’t rooting for the Patriots or Falcons.

They came to cheer on Gibbs, the former two-sport athlete at Eastern Washington University who has endured almost four weeks of pain and uncertainty in the intensive care unit at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.

Gibbs drank some water during the game but had to pass on the veggie plate – solid foods don’t go down well when your intestines have been shredded by a 9-millimeter bullet.

If only a single round had found Gibbs on the night of Jan. 15-16 in Pioneer Square, the healing might be easier. But there were 10 others, and they struck Gibbs in the arms, legs, shoulders, aorta and spine.

Police quickly chased down a suspect, Jaron Lamar Cox of Seattle. He was arraigned last week on charges of assault with a deadly weapon. No trial date has been set.

Gibbs was rushed to Harborview in critical condition. Since then the surgeries have come in waves, seven of them in three weeks. The latest was on Tuesday, as doctors removed bullet fragments from his buttocks.

“Nobody deserves that, but he definitely didn’t deserve that,” said his father, Alden Gibbs Sr.

Gibbs still faces a few trials of his own – physical, emotional and financial – but the worst is over. Soon he’ll try to get out of that wheelchair and begin physical therapy.

For Gibbs, the sports mantra of “no pain, no gain” never meant more than it does right now.

“I’d rather have it happen to me than anyone else, because I’m mentally and physically prepared for this,” Gibbs said.

A fulfilling journey

Gibbs still speaks with a Brooklyn accent, but left New York behind in 2007 to play basketball at the College of the Siskiyous in northern California. He transferred to Eastern in 2009.

“We became friends right away,” said teammate Jeffrey Forbes, who roomed with Gibbs that summer. “I could tell he was a good guy – we called each other ‘brother.’”

That season, Gibbs started 14 games at small forward, averaging about three points and as many rebounds.

“He was a super kid and a great teammate,” said assistant coach Shantay Legans. “People just gravitated toward him.”

Injured that winter, Gibbs considered transferring, but was convinced to play football by then-assistant coach Torey Hunter. Head coach Beau Baldwin was impressed by Gibbs’ 38-inch vertical reach and allowed him to walk on.

The 6-foot-3 Gibbs hadn’t played the game since high school, but made an immediate impact on special teams.

“And now here I am, playing for a national championship,” Gibbs told NCAA.com before the Eagles played Delaware for the FCS title in Frisco, Texas.

The Eagles won that game, 20-19, and Gibbs won more friends. Then he won the starting spot at cornerback his senior year.

Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell marveled at Gibbs’ talents.

“At first I was little skeptical. Just how much football has he played,” Mitchell said in 2011. “But when Alden came out here, it wasn’t that hard of a transition. I swear to this day I have not completed a corner ball on him.”

After graduating from EWU in 2012 with a degree in communications, Gibbs worked as a manager at Northern Quest before moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for a job with Apple.

Pursuing a career in hotel management, he helped open the Marriott in Bellevue in 2015.

Two months ago the 30-year-old Gibbs took a job managing the Silver Cloud Inn on Lake Union.

“I like it and I’m pretty good at it,” said Gibbs, who also found time last summer to play semipro football.

A fateful night

Gibbs and friends spent the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend at Lake Chelan. They returned on Sunday, still with enough energy to go clubbing that night in Pioneer Square.

It was already Monday morning when Gibbs emerged from the Stage nightclub. As Gibbs was helping two female friends to a car, a man confronted one of the women.

“He was rude and disrespectful to her,” said Gibbs, who defended her and became a target.

“He started swinging, so I had to defend myself,” said Gibbs, who did just that. Soon his attacker was prone on the pavement.

Gibbs began to turn away when he felt the first bullet and fell to the pavement.

That’s all he remembers, but Seattle police officers said they witnessed the suspect fire while prone.

While Gibbs was transported to Harborview, the news spread quickly and his friends rallied.

Forbes was with his son when his cell phone blew up. He met others at Harborview, where “we all instantly started crying.”

An uncertain future

Gibbs’ body is healing, albeit slowly. On Thursday, doctors had to go into his hip and clean a wound that wasn’t healing properly.

There will be more procedures while Gibbs waits for his right arm to heal. He’ll need two healthy arms to support himself as he tries to walk again.

The doctors haven’t broached that subject – the chance of permanent paralysis – because it’s still too early. Not that it would matter to Gibbs, who currently has no feeling in his legs.

“I’m going to walk again, there’s no doubt about that,” said Gibbs, who plans to return to the Silver Cloud Inn when this ordeal is over.

His friends are there to lighten the load. The Super Bowl was a highlight, but not a day goes by when Gibbs doesn’t have at least four or five visitors in his room.

They’ve offered moral support, plus something more tangible: financial aid. When he was shot, Gibbs was 10 days away from eligibility for medical insurance.

His father, who lives in Maryland but spent three weeks in Seattle after the shooting, is filing insurance paperwork.

At the same time, basketball teammate Kevin Winford started a website to offset the Gibbs’ medical costs. As of Friday, 437 donors have raised $31,499 toward a goal of $100,000.

Help has come from several former EWU athletes: football players Zach Johnson, Jeff Minnerly, Miles Weatheroy; and basketball players Forbes and Winford.

A three-on-three basketball tournament has been organized for next week. All proceeds will go toward Gibbs’ hospital expenses.

Along with donations, friends have raised Gibbs’ spirits with messages of encouragement.

From former EWU football teammate Allen Brown: “Keep fighting bro! 1 love!”

From former Eastern basketball coach Kirk Earlywine: “Keep battling, keep fighting.”

Gibbs will do just that.

“That just motivates me even more. I could have given up when I was lying on the street, but I know that people care,” Gibbs said.