‘It’s devastatingly hard’: Wichita mom speaks out after son shot while getting a soda

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – An 18-year-old is now paralyzed and in the hospital after someone opened fire at a gas station parking lot in south Wichita.

On June 3, just after 11:30 p.m., Christopher “Chris” Halbrook was leaving a car show in south Wichita and decided to get a soda at a gas station at MacArthur and Meridian when it happened.

“He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it’s devastating,” said Chris’ mom Tiffany Halbrook.

Tiffany said she later learned someone was in the middle of a robbery and made the choice to fire shots. Chris was hit in the spine and is now paralyzed from the waist down.

The challenge now is rehab so Chris can come home and welcome his first child in about two months.

“I can’t fathom a reason why,” said Tiffany. “It’s terrible. Like he didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve this at all. I think this through, and through in my head, and many times, I wish I would have been there, and I wish it would have been me. Like, why couldn’t it just have been me?”

Tiffany says Chris has good days and bad in rehab with his fiancée, who is about six months pregnant.

“He’s strong. But I can tell. You just know your kid. You just know when they are overwhelmed,” said Tiffany. “You just don’t want people to know that you are breaking. Put a smile on your face, crack a joke and go about your day. It’s kind of what you do.”

Tiffany says it’s now a struggle juggling her other four kids and their needs with time at the rehab facility.

“I think she’s doing great. I mean, during all this, it’s been such a hard like thing to cope with, but with all the other kids that she has. She’s doing great. She’s a great mom. But I know it’s hard on her,” said family friend MacKenzie Jack. “Chris … He’s holding up. I know it’s hard on him about to have a baby and stuff. But he’s being strong, you know. He has to be. Especially for his mom. He tries to hold it together for his mom.”

Tiffany did get some help recently from Billy Sharp and the Second Chance men’s group.

“They got a good start to put in a ramp for Chris when he is strong enough to come back home,” said Tiffany. “Just basic renovations to accommodate a wheelchair is going to cost at least $50,000. And Chris did not have full insurance. So the bills are just overwhelming.”

Family friend Zack Rowan has started a GoFundMe to help with expenses for now.

“I just know the important thing is Chris is a fighter. He’s got it in him,” said Tiffany. “It’s not something you can make sense of, especially with everything going on and him being paralyzed. It’s our whole life changed in a matter of seconds over people’s decisions to unload a gun in a crowd of people.”

Wichita Police Department says this remains an active investigation.