Basketball star vows to walk again after shooting left him paralyzed

INDIANAPOLIS — Basketball is a game of ups and downs — just like life.

“I got a 5% chance, so there is still a chance there,” Columbus Caudle said.

Caudle, 18, has been playing the game he loves for as long as he could remember.

The game he loves earned him a scholarship to Alabama State – that same game now has a whole different meaning.

“I’m in the party just chilling and then the next thing you know – the door opens, and shots been fired everywhere and everybody running,” Caudle said.

Just before midnight on May 31, someone opened fire at a home hosting a high school graduation party on Wolfgang drive. That left Caudle in the hospital for several weeks after being shot in the back.

“I could feel it, I could feel my body and I could feel nothing,” Caudle said.

The shooting left the Caudle paralyzed from the waist down.

“How are we going to make the best of it now, how are we going to make this my life now,” Caudle said.

Caudle said that the doctors gave him a 5% chance of walking again – but don’t tell him.

“There is no way to be like down, because if you are down what is that going to get you," Caudle said. "I’m in the chair already. I could be dead. I’m just thankful that I’m here and still living my life and I could still communicate with my family."

The only thing Columbus needs is a chance– something that he’s learned first-hand from the game he loves.

“I still have that chance, I have that in my head, that 5% chance and I’m going to work,” Caudle said.