Less than three weeks until his high school graduation, 18-year-old Carlos Arroliga was shot in the abdomen during a robbery at his Richmond home.
Despite the high schooler's terrifying ordeal, love and support from his fellow classmates just might help him find the ability to cross the graduation stage at El Camino High School in South San Francisco on June 2.
The violence on May 15 initially stunned the school community.
"Everybody was really, really shocked and traumatized, but immediately kind of started planning for well how we could support him going forward" Assistant Principal Clare Jackson said. "Fortunately, he's made a really quick recovery."
Students rallied together. They wrote uplifting mesages and signed a yearbook for Arroliga as well as raised money on a GoFundMe page to help him pay for medical expenses.
"To be honest, it's kind of a sad moment to realize that this happened, but it's also a good thing that we did this to support him," Arroliga's friend Renny Boucher said.
Arroliga continues to recover at home, and the school community is hopeful that he will be able to attend graduation.
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Richmond police are still searching for two men believed to be involved in the robbery and shooting that occurred on May 15.
