A home and healing for Chase

Thank you for taking the time to look at our go fund me for a loving friend and brother who's been through some incredibly life altering situations.  In the early morning hours of January 18th, 2020, a report came in to 911. A man was shot in his tent and bleeding out in the woods.   Chase was violently attacked as he was sleeping in his tent. From evidence from the officers and detectives this attack was completely unprovoked and came without any warning. The suspect(s) fired multiple shots into his tent and the surrounding area. Chase was hit twice, once in the left shoulder and once in the mid-back. As the perpetrator(s) fled, Chase lay screaming, bleeding and in an unimaginable amount of pain. The temperature hovered around zero, he was in the middle of nowhere and his cell phone hadn’t been charged in 6 days. Chase managed to find his phone and thankfully, had enough battery left to call 9-1-1. The call came in at 2:25am and the police and fire department were immediately dispatched. Due to his condition and location, Chase had a hard time giving precise directions. Nevertheless, APD/AFD persevered and with the help of a drone, ATV and K9, they located him at 3:30am. One hour and five minutes he lay there, in the cold, in a pool of his own blood, telling the 911 dispatcher towards the end “if you guys don’t find me soon, I don’t think I’m gonna make it.” Chase was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening gunshot injuries and a collapsed lung. Requiring blood transfusions, the amazing medical team at Providence Hospital went to work right away, inserting a chest tube and intubating him. They found one gunshot wound to his left shoulder, with the bullet still lodged inside. They also found two other wounds; one in his left side and one in the mid back. We would later learn that the bullet that went in his back ricocheted off a rib and came out his left side. The rib shattered, puncturing one of his lungs. The doctors said if the bullet hadn’t struck a rib, it almost certainly would’ve struck an internal organ and Chase probably would not be here today.  They were unable to remove the bullet from his shoulder/chest for fear of paralyzing him in his incredibly weak state and with incredibly low weight. They were able to stabilize him and after a week of recuperation, Chase walked out of the hospital with a pretty incredible prognosis: with a lot of rest and physical therapy for his shoulder, he would make a full recovery.  In reality there is no logical reason why he survived. But we're so incredibly grateful he did. Chase has been homeless for many years, spending the last 4 years outside in a tent in the woods by himself.  Prior to this attack, the temperature had been devastatingly cold, requiring even more of his energy to stay warm. He hadn’t charged his phone in almost a week and yet somehow had enough battery life to not only call for help but stay on the phone with them for over an hour. When the crime-scene investigators went back to look for evidence, they noted at least 9 shell casings around Chase’s tent. He was only struck twice – thankfully, neither one being a fatal shot. He survived the extraction and ambulance ride to the hospital despite his incredibly low weight and the amount of lost blood.   The reasons for Chase’s homelessness are complicated and could be considered irrelevant, in terms of this GoFundMe page. What we can tell you, from the information we got from the family and was then confirmed by his toxicology reports from the hospital, is that Chase is not an alcoholic nor a drug-addict. He does not have a criminal record. He is simply a person who fell on some really hard times. He then ended up in a situation that was nearly impossible to get out of between trying to walk out and back looking for jobs and food, no address, and just trying to survive.  No matter your viewpoints or previous experience with the homeless/homelessness, Chase did not deserve this. NO ONE deserves this. For someone to prey on this type of individual, who is already struggling to survive every day and every night in sub-zero temperatures, who had no way to defend themselves and had no idea what was coming for him is absolutely deplorable. So while APD, who has been incredible during this time, does their job of finding the person(s) responsible for this heinous crime, what we can do now is support Chase and try to give him the opportunity to be in a safe space where he can start over without having to worry about something like this happening again.  Any donations collected will be managed jointly by a long-time family friend and a family member and used for medical expenses, counseling, housing and clothing/personal items.   Chase is tiny. He wears a size small in shirts, a 30 in pants, and a 9 ½ - 10 in shoes.  Thank you for taking the time to read this story and for your support. Whether it be in the form of donations, prayers or information about resources you think might be helpful to Chase, we appreciate it all more than you could ever know. The link to the original news article is posted below.  https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2020/01/18/police-investigating-shooting-of-a-man-in-south-anchorage-woods/