The community is rallying to support the 15-year-old shot at Timberview High School on Wednesday, but his family says not everyone is being so kind.
A GoFundMe created for Zacchaeus Selby, known as Zacch to his friends and KK to his family, has raised more than $2,000. The page describes the student as bright and respectful. His grandmother, Kathy Selby, says the same.
"He's mild-mannered, he's soft-spoken," she says. "One of the staff members at the hospital came up and said he is loved. They said a visiting room is being flooded with people coming to see him and dropping off gifts."
But she says others are attacking his character, calling him a bully.
"What they're saying-- they're making him look like a monster," Kathy says.
"But he's not. He's not at all. And I know that parents always say 'My kid is good' … but he really is a good kid."
A video that surfaced of the moments leading up to the school shooting shows Selby apparently attacking his alleged shooter, 18-year-old Timothy Simpkins.
Simpkins and his family have said that Selby bullied him, and several other instances had already been reported to the school. They say Simpkins took the gun to school to protect himself.
Kathy says she believes he took the gun to school to target her grandson.
"I would like to humanize KK," she says. "The other family has gotten ahead of the story. We feel like they've made KK look like a monster. We've seen the video ourselves, and we were shocked. None of us have ever seen him angry like that."
Kathy says some people have told her that Selby had been provoked, but that hasn't been proven. Whatever the case, she says they haven't gotten to talk to him to hear his side of the story, because he's in a medically induced coma, in critical condition, awaiting several surgeries.
Selby was shot four times total. His family says he was hit in the chest, stomach, arm, and leg. But still, Kathy is thankful it wasn't worse.
"I'm so grateful that he is still here," Kathy says. "That we're not planning a funeral."
Simpkins was arrested on three charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He was released hours later on bond.
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