Monday, September 28, 2009

Grandma: Boys ages 3 and 1 saved their mom after dad shot her (Belle Grade, Florida)

My god, those brave and precious little boys. Braver than they should have to be at age 3 and 1. Grandma says they saved their mom's life when they ran to the neighbors and asked them to call 911 after their abusive and cowardly father, ISAAC ROBERSON, shot their mom in the head. Mom is in critical condition. We've posted on this case before.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/local_news/epaper/2009/09/28/0928bgboys.html

Grandma: Boys ages 3 and 1 saved their mother after dad shot her in their Belle Glade home

By SONJA ISGER
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 28, 2009

BELLE GLADE — They could not stop their father from shooting their mother, but a 3-year-old boy and his 1-year-old brother, may have saved her life by running to a neighbor's and having someone call 911.

Their mother, 20-year-old Casey Gilbert, clings to life, a bullet lodged in her head. And her mother, Tamara Martin gives all the credit to 3-year-old Isaac.

"If he wouldn't have got help, she would have been dead right now," the boys' grandmother told CBS 12 this weekend.

The boys witnessed their father Isaac Roberson Jr., 23, shoot their mother and then turn the gun on himself Wednesday night in their Belle Glade apartment. Their father died.

Martin told CBS 12 that the eldest boy acted quickly, "climbing the stairs with his little brother holding his hand, and knocking on the door and had them call 911."

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's investigators has said the shooting appears to be an attempted murder-suicide.

Relatives told The Palm Beach Post last week that the couple had been together about five years.

"She was trying to break the relationship off. She wanted to leave," said Russell Fields, who is married to Gilbert's aunt, Debra.

Fields said Roberson, who didn't work, was at the couple's apartment cooking dinner as part of his attempt to convince her to stay in the relationship.

But investigators say that when Gilbert arrived home from the grocery store, Roberson shot her, sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said last week.

Grandmother Martin told CBS 12, the boys remember it like this:

"My daddy shot mommy and then and then shot his self; little Isaiah will say daddy shot mommy," Martin said.

Martin confirms the couple's discord and told CBS 12 her daughter was the victim of domestic violence and that she was trying to leave this toxic relationship.

Martin says she has spent the days since at her daughter's bedside at Delray Medical Center. She reports Gilbert - a state corrections officer - has been in and out of surgery for a gunshot to the head.

The family tells CBS 12 that Gilbert hasn't responded when they try to talk to her, but they keep trying in hopes the boys will grow up with their mother.

While Martin continues to tell her daughter, "Casey, everything is going to be OK, I love you and everyone else does," the boys have gone to stay with an aunt for now. The family is also setting up a trust fund for the boys.