Boy Shot at Jewish Center Carried Home in Arms of Rescuers

The 5-year-old kindergartner who suffered the most serious injuries in the shooting rampage last month at a Jewish community center in Granada Hills returned home from the hospital Thursday in the arms of the firefighters who helped save his life.

Shot through the leg and stomach during the Aug. 10 attack, Benjamin Kadish had lost so much blood that he nearly died. “Don’t die on me, come on, don’t die,” a paramedic urged the little boy as he lay bleeding on the floor of the center’s reception area.

On Thursday, Ben was full of life. Topped with a fireman’s helmet (he got a real one after firefighters realized he was disappointed with a plastic imitation) and outfitted in a crisp Los Angeles Fire Department T-shirt, he waved to a dozen news cameras as he left Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Woodland Hills in the front seat of a big red firetruck.

The treat was courtesy of the city Fire Department after officials learned that Ben dreamed of riding in a fire engine.

The day was also a long-awaited dream for Ben’s parents, who spoke publicly for the first time since the shooting. With the worst behind them, Charles and Eleanor Kadish choked up with relief over their son’s homecoming.

“It’s overwhelming,” Charles Kadish told the crowd of well-wishers who had gathered to witness Ben’s release from the hospital. “To take someone from where he was to where he is today--it’s a miracle. It means everything to us just to see him healthy.”

Ben is expected to fully recover from his wounds in six months, said David Mesna, an orthopedic surgeon. He will remain in a wheelchair for several weeks and needs to rely on a colostomy bag until his stomach wounds fully heal. He is expected to return to Pomelo Drive Elementary School in West Hills later this fall for first grade.

Ben was shot along with four others during day camp at the North Valley Jewish Community Center. The other shooting victims--a 68-year-old receptionist, a 16-year-old camp counselor and two 6-year-old boys--have been released from hospitals.

Authorities have charged Buford O. Furrow Jr., a self-proclaimed racist from Olympia, Wash., with the attack. Furrow confessed to the shootings, authorities said, bragging that he did it “as a wake-up call for Americans to kill Jews.”

Furrow also has admitted killing Filipino American mailman Joseph Ileto in Chatsworth later the same day.

Furrow, 37, has pleaded not guilty to federal murder and gun charges. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has filed attempted murder charges, but Furrow has not yet been to court on those.

Furrow’s name came up only once at the hospital news conference Thursday. When asked, Charles Kadish said he didn’t want to talk about the accused killer.

With a crush of TV cameras squeezed around them and reporters scribbling down their every word, the Kadishes limited their remarks to words of gratitude about their son’s recovery.

“After something like this,” Charles Kadish said, “you just appreciate every minute you have with your children.”

Ben, a stocky boy with a shy smile, did not speak as he sat next to the podium in his wheelchair.

After the last question was answered, it was time for Ben’s ride home.

Some of the same paramedics who helped speed Ben to the hospital hoisted him out of his wheelchair into his seat on the fire engine. As camera shutters whirled, Ben waved and smiled from beneath his oversized fireman’s helmet.

A parade of emergency vehicles pulled out of the hospital, wended its way to West Hills and chugged up the small incline where the Kadish family lives. Their cul-de-sac was lined with balloons and neighbors.

Paramedics lifted Ben out of the truck and then carried him in across the sidewalk through the front door and into his house.