‘Hatred gets you nowhere’: Victim of alleged hate crime shooting speaks out amid recovery

CHICAGO — A years-long conflict between neighbors in Will County came to a violent end last month. And now, one of them is in jail and the other is recovering from two debilitating gunshot wounds.

The physical and emotional resonance of two bullet wounds inflicted painful damage to Melissa Robertson’s body, one tore through her abdomen, the other through her hand.

“It hit me and as fast as I realized what was happening, it went in right under on this area,” Robertson said “Some ribs were shot out, the spleen and the colon was shot in half.”

But during a visit to Loyola Medicine in Burr Ridge, Robertson gets a reprieve.

For the first time, Melissa got to see what her hand looked like after the bandages came off.

“A lot of my fears have kind of been squashed because I didn’t know what to expect. Like I said, I thought my thumb was going to, like, fall on the floor, because I know what I saw that day. And this is way better, I’m glad,” Robertson said.

She couldn’t bear to watch, favoring a sheet between her and her nurse, but she wanted WGN-TV to witness the moment, and it’s a testament to strength in the face of hate.

Four weeks before, the 45-year-old Lockport resident came face to face with the flashing muzzle of a gun allegedly fired by her longtime neighbo r, 70-year-old John Shadbar.

“He was shooting multiple times,” Robertson said.

And it wasn’t just Robertson. Her 8-year-old son was jumping on a trampoline in the backyard.

“It had bullet holes in the netting. A minute before he was jumping up there,” Robertson said.

What prompted this attack is complicated, with an ugly history, but to Robertson, it is about hate.

Both of Robertson’s children are black, and Shadbar, who is white, has worn his racism, she said, as loud as his motorcycle.

That is what sparked the most recent confrontation, but Robertson said it followed multiple racist threats, with police repeatedly summoned to the home.

“We were civil for a while, You know I knew his opinions, he definitely used the n-word, not in front of my children, at first,” Robertson said.

It all came to a head that day in May. After heated words, prosecutors say Shadbar brought out a rifle and fired it at Robertson, who was defenseless.

The shooting left her in critical condition, and she later required multiple surgeries.

“Unfortunately this guy tried to terrorize us and I reached out to the police for help and nothing,” Robertson said.

Shadbar’s wife works as a correctional Sergent at the Cook County Jail and was home when her husband allegedly shot their neighbor. She’s since been de-deputized , pending an internal investigation.

Now, while Shadbar is sitting in jail awaiting trial on nine felony charges, Robertson is recovering and taking stock after the shock of the near-death experience.

“Hatred gets you nowhere. Being like that in life, I mean he’s done his life sentence already being that mean and hateful, he’s missed out on everything. Because life is awesome,” Robertson said.

While Melissa fights back against the pain, she’s also found something surprising.

“I do kind of forgive him. I do actually forgive him. I don’t, I don’t know what happened in his head that day,” Robertson said.

According to Robertson, she has been able to get through it, thanks to the support of her aunt, Jeanne Beyer.

“Every time she cries out in pain, when I have to pack that exit wound and stuff gauze in the bullet hole and she screams out in pain, I can’t forgive. I can’t,” Beyer said.

What they both have now is a sense of purpose and strength that has been forged by struggle.

“She will be stronger for it in the end. She’s going to be stronger for what she’s gone through, she’s going to be stronger than his hate. We all will be,” Beyer said.

Will County Sheriff’s deputies said they had been called to the Robertson home twice this year over complaints about her neighbor. One issue was resolved, but the department said in the other case, there was not enough evidence.

Shadbar is currently being held without bond and when deputies searched his home, they found a total of five weapons, including two AK-47-style rifles.

Shedbar’s FOID card was revoked in 1979 due to a felony.

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