Kevin’s Van Club

VENTURA — Kevin Natale’s mother is crying.

“I’m just so worried,” she says, her voice breaking. Her 17-year-old son has come down with the flu.

For Kevin, the victim of an unprovoked shooting 3 1/2 years ago that left him paralyzed from the chest down, the flu is never just the flu. It can be lethal.

“I get panicky,” Kevin’s mother, Diane MacIntyre, said later. “I just go crazy.”

Life has been like this for the family since that awful night in January 1994, when a neighbor burst into Kevin’s Dolphin Court home and shot him as he played video games with a friend. For a few months, the media spotlight shone as his attacker--a 21-year-old neighbor who apparently was angry over a tennis ball hitting his car--was caught, sentenced and sent to prison.

The spotlight faded soon after. Life for everyone else went on. But Kevin was left with a wheelchair, partial use of one arm and immense medical bills.

Kevin’s more pressing battle is not the flu, which doctors fear because it could turn into pneumonia.

It’s that van of his, the one bought with trust fund proceeds months after he was shot. With 120,000 miles on it, the van smokes. It leaks oil. And not long ago, the engine caught fire on a trip to Shriner’s Hospital in San Francisco.

Now the county’s law enforcement brass have come together over Kevin’s need for new wheels.

Aligning themselves with United Way of Ventura County, the district attorney, sheriff and police chiefs from across the county have established the Crime Victims Assistance Fund. They plan to work year-round to raise money for people whose lives have been forever changed by violent crime.

The group will make its first effort Sunday, with a sports memorabilia auction at McGinty’s Sports Bar and Restaurant in Ventura to buy Kevin a new van.

“This really harkens back to the old days, when if you were the victim of an arson and your barn was burned down, your neighbors and friends were out there rebuilding the barn for you,” said Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

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“If you had your leg broken by some thug, the next day you’ve got people there cooking meals, helping with your kids. It’s community members helping other community members. It’s so important that we get back to that concept.”

Kevin Natale spent six months in the hospital after the attack, which occurred Jan. 12, 1994. Wearing latex gloves and carrying handcuffs, neighbor Brian Trent Adams charged into Kevin’s home, pulled a 9-millimeter pistol from his waistband and shot the boy in the spine as he scrambled toward the back door. Adams was sentenced to life in prison with the potential for parole in 12 years.

Kevin still lives in the home where he was shot.

“I guess everyone reacts to a violent crime differently,” Kevin said this week. “I have taken it pretty well. I’m surprised I can still stay in the house like I do. But when it gets later at night, I don’t like to be home by myself.”

He spends much of his time on the computer, surfing the Internet and meeting new friends. He is working toward getting his high school diploma by November and wants to go to college and become a sports broadcaster or sportswriter.

He has had muscles and tendons from his leg transplanted into his right arm and makes four trips a week to a physical therapist. His goal is to gain enough strength in his right arm so that he can drive rather than rely on his full-time attendant.

The new van, family members said, represents a source of independence for Kevin, crucial to helping him attain his goals.

“The last few months, Kevin has really been excited,” MacIntyre said. “I think he sees a future for himself.”

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It’s the fund-raising effort that has buoyed Kevin’s spirits, family members said. But not because Kevin knows he is the beneficiary.

He is more excited that the effort will evolve into a safety net for other crime victims who cannot afford the burdens their attackers imposed.

“It’s going to be great that it’s an annual thing,” he said, lying in bed recovering from his bout with the flu. “I’m really looking forward to helping other victims, raising more money, getting things they need.”

The new victims fund started when Kevin’s grandfather, former Ventura County Marshal John MacIntyre, ran into McGinty’s owner, Gary E. Erickson, in the supermarket.

Erickson, a professional fund-raiser and longtime Ventura County criminologist, hadn’t seen MacIntyre in years. They got to talking. MacIntyre told him about Kevin, the van, the family’s struggles.

They decided to start the committee. They first called Bradbury, who jumped at the idea and began calling everyone he knows. Within six weeks, they had raised more than $15,000 through donations from the likes of the Deputy Sheriff’s Assn., actor Kevin Costner, the Ventura Rotary and Community Memorial Hospital.

“We think it will do two things,” said Erickson, minutes after receiving an overnight package for Sunday’s fund-raiser--an autographed jersey from former pro football star Ronnie Lott. “It will certainly raise some money for people that need assistance. And almost as important, it will raise awareness.

“We read about crime every day in the paper and on the news. But we don’t think about what the impact is. Here’s a 14-year-old boy. The rest of his life and his family’s life is now tied to giving him some kind of quality of life.”

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With comedian Wil Shriner as the master of ceremonies, Sunday’s auction will include 13 baseballs signed by such major leaguers as Will Clark, Royce Clayton, Albert Belle, Barry Larkin and Ron Gant.

There will be a 1966 World Series ball signed by baseball legend Brooks Robinson, Dodger tickets, two golf balls signed by Corey Pavin and a photograph that football great Dick Butkus will sign for the buyer. Baseball star Terry Pendleton is scheduled to be there. And Butkus is trying to weave it into his busy schedule, Erickson said.

“My grandpa has been just great,” Kevin said.

Added Kevin’s 19-year-old sister, Kris Natale: “He’s taken the last two months and completely dedicated it to Kevin.”

Any money raised beyond the $35,000 to $40,000 needed to buy the van will be put into the District Attorney’s Crime Victims Emergency Fund.

The small fund has been used in the past to buy an elderly crime victim a new pair of eyeglasses, hardware to build another victim a home wheelchair ramp, and food or a place to stay for recently victimized families, Bradbury said.

“Lots of people think once the crime is committed and it gets prosecuted, everything is fine,” said Debbie O’Neill, director of the district attorney’s victims services division. “But these families continue to deal with the effects of crime for many years.”