Student blinded in shooting thanks Calgary

A Brazilian student blinded last week in a downtown Calgary shooting thanked police, doctors, and thecommunityfor helping him through the ordeal.

Jose Ribamar Ribeiro Neto spoke to reporters in Calgary onFriday,flanked by his mother,Maria Teresa, his father Antonio Carlos, andhis girlfriend, Roberta Porto.

Ribeiro, who was wearing white sunglasses and had to be helped to his seat, said he wasgrateful he survived the shooting, even though he has lost both eyes.

"I could be in the graveyard right now, and now I am here. I can hug everyone, I can talk to my friends in Brazil."

'I don't know yet how I'm going to take it because I have to learn a lot. I have to start to study again. I have to start a new life.' Jose Ribamar Ribeiro Neto

Ribeiro had been in the city for about six months to study English withPorto when he was shot just below the eye as the couple left a restaurant and walked along Centre Street South on Sept. 16.

"I didn't know what was happening, but I saw the flash and I felt something crazy in my head," he recalled on Friday. "I said if I am not dying, I'm blind."

Police said Ribeiro was an innocent bystander and the bullet that blinded him was fired during an altercation between a man and two other people in a park down the street.

When asked what should happen to the shooter, Ribeiro said he didn't care.

"I think the police of Calgary, they are doing [their] best. Because you can see in the streets, you can see everywhere you go, you can feel safe. I don't know what is going to happen. I think justice."

'Canada was amazing for me'

Ribeiro was two years away from getting a university degree when he came to Calgary to study English so he could go into international business.

Ribeiro spoke fondly about his time in Canada before the shooting, recalling trips to Banff, Jasper and Lake Louise.

"Canada was amazing for me," he said.

He said he has trouble thinking about his future when he can't even go to the bathroom alone.

"I don't know yet how I'm going to take it because I have to learn a lot. I have to start to study again. I have to start a new life."

Besides thanking doctors and police, Ribeiro said he was grateful to the Brazilian community in Calgary for being his voice through the ordeal and thanked Canadians for reaching out to him.

"I have no words. Just I'm so thankful They're like angels."

The Brazilian Community Association of Alberta has already raised $8,500 for Ribeiro and has found his family six months free accommodation in Calgary. The group is organizing a fundraising dinner, silent auctionand concert in the next few months.

Airdrie artist Robert Harriman is donating all proceedsfrom anOctober exhibition at the Fraser Group Gallery at Art Central (100-7th Ave. S.W.),added the group.

A spokeswoman for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind has said the agency will help Ribeiro adjust to his new life.

Porto, who led her boyfriend by the arm out of the news conference,said each time she is saddened by his blindness, she remembers that he is still alive.

"I am glad he is here with me, that I can touch his hand and I can hug him," she said.

Roland Ashley Warawa, 30, faces several charges, including two counts of attempted murder.