‘Kind of shook me up.’ Lexington cop raising money for 6-year-old blinded by shooting
The lives of the Roberts family were permanently altered when bullets tore through their Lexington home and struck 6-year-old Malakai in the temple, permanently blinding him and exiting the other side of his head before hitting his mom.
Cacy Roberts, Malakai’s mom, had a pile of medical bills. The family also had to deal with significant property damage to their home and vehicle. A Lexington police detective took note and began leading an effort to provide as much financial and other support to the family as possible.
“You won’t find a more sweet kid than Malakai despite what he’s going through,” detective Cal Mattox told the Herald-Leader. Mattox, a narcotics detective, wasn’t directly involved in the shooting investigation.
He started a GoFundMe drive for the family and tried using his connections in the community to help as much as possible. The Glenn’s Freedom dealership donated an SUV to Cacy after her car was totaled from gunfire.
“As a father, I can’t imagine the struggle the Roberts family’s going through,” Michael Church, a sales manager at the dealership, said in a Facebook post. “Just hope they know we’re behind them. We need to take care of each other.”
Fairway Leasing sent the family a new living room, dining room and kitchen set because their furniture was “riddled with bullets” after the shooting, Mattox said.
The shooting occurred in the early morning hours of Dec. 21, according to Lexington police. Malakai, who was 5 years old at the time, was asleep in bed with his mom. In addition to blinding him, the shooting may have also caused Malakai to permanently lose the ability to taste and smell. Police have not yet made any arrests.
“It just kind of shook me up, man, not even as a police officer but just as a human being overall that a 5-year-old had to go through this,” Mattox said.
While Mattox has led the effort, he said personnel from throughout the Lexington Police Department have called asking how they can help. Mattox hoped he could help the family afford anything Malakai needed for his new life.
“If he needs a braille book or braille toys, and the best resources we can get him, I want to get them the best of the best,” Mattox said.
Two GoFundMe accounts started by family friends had already raised about $10,000 each. Mattox started an additional one, which had raised more than $5,000 as of Thursday. The Roberts family will get the money from each donation drive.
Cacy said the money would go into a special needs trust fund for Malakai, and all of the money would go to him.
“It’s definitely his money,” she said. “I’m going to let him pick some things out that he wants.”
From the supportive messages to the donations of a car and furniture, Cacy was amazed that the Lexington community was “so helpful and so generous and so nice.”
“It doesn’t go unnoticed,” she said. “That is definitely appreciated.”
Malakai had responded as well as any child could, Cacy said, and he remained in good spirits. He understood the severity of his condition as soon as it happened.
“He was asking me if he was going to die,” Cacy said. Cacy was honest with Malakai about his permanent loss of sight, and she said he handled it well because he’s very mature for a 6-year-old.
Home from the hospital, Malakai celebrated his birthday with his brother, Kameron, on Friday.
And he’s already telling his mom that he still wants to go to the beach this summer.
“He is the type of person that would be able to handle a tragedy like this,” Cacy said.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 4:02 PM.