Shooting survivor graduates Central High School: “My situation changed my perspective.”

PHENIX CITY, Ala. (WTVM) - An East Alabama teen shot in the head at a Phenix City Park in 2022 is continuing to beat the odds.

Christy Moore turned her tassel at Central High School’s graduation Sunday night. This was an accomplishment she nor her parents thought would happen after the life changing ordeal at a birthday party more than a year ago.

“I didn’t even know if I knew that many people,” Moore said. “I didn’t think they’re were going to be screaming and clapping for me. On the stage at graduation, I was like, ‘oh my gosh.’ I was trying not to cry. How am I going to clean up my tears.”

She said the tears came from an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty because around this time last year she couldn’t even walk or talk.

On December 31 2022, Moore was the at the Meadowlane Park in Phenix City for a party when shots rang out. A bullet struck her in the back of the head.

“I spent four and a half months in the hospital,” Moore explained. “During that time it caused me to have lost memory, I couldn’t walk, I’m not paralyzed I have left neglect; it [the bullet] caused me to have left neglect. It hit me on the right side and it affected my whole entire left side.”

Latroya Moore, Christy’s mom, told News Leader 9 after the shooting, she didn’t know if her baby was going to be talk or walk again.

“She’s placed in ICU,” Latroya Moore said in 2023. “She’s not able to talk. She has a tube down her throat, they had to shave all her hair off her head.”

A year and a half later, Christy has made tremendous progress.

“I’m just amazed because to be able to see her be able to do those things that I thought she wasn’t going to be able to do,” Latroya Moore said. “It makes me feel so good to see her graduate and all the accomplishments that she’s done this school year.”

“I think this wheelchair is my best friend, because it brought so much love so much joy,” Christy Moore said. “I think I have a whole different perspective on life. I see life in a totally opposite way.”

The same place Christy made her recovery is at the same university she plans to attend for the next four years.

“Never did I think in a million years that I would attend UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) at UAB,” Christy Moore said. “My situation changed me to want to do physical therapy in the fall. They [therapists] were pushing me, I was crying, and they were like ‘no, no, no,’ and I feel like I am capable of helping others not give up. "

18-year-old Jaheem Malik Chappell was arrested in January 2023 and charged with attempted murder in this case.

For our interview with Christy and Latroya Moore during our 5:30 newscast, watch the video below: