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Brennan Walker turned ache and worry into achievement and success.
It’s been over three years since he was shot at for asking instructions to his college, and now, he’s graduating from the Different Middle for Schooling in Rochester, Mich., and is on his approach to school.
“It doesn’t mentally influence me as a lot because it used to, however I take into consideration the occasions day by day,” Walker told local Detoit station WJBK of the horrific incident.
On Saturday (June 12), Brennan graduated from Rochester Excessive College and says he’s a little bit nervous about taking the following step in his schooling. However he isn’t almost as fearful about that as he was when he skilled that nearly-fatal life occasion.
When he was simply 14, Walker knocked on the door of Jeff Zeigler, who’s white, to ask him for instructions, Zeigler assumed Brennan was a burglar and opened his entrance door with a shotgun and fired on the teen.
RELATED: White Man Who Shot At Lost Black Teen Asking For Directions Sentenced To 4-10 Years In Prison
The case made national news and led to Zeigler being sentenced to 4 to 10 years in jail. It understandably shook Walker and his household.
“After that stuff occurred to me I used to be in a reasonably dangerous place so far as my schoolwork, mentally and emotionally,” he mentioned to the brand new station. “I wasn’t actually there, absolutely.”
““Watching my son be depressed made me depressed,” his mom Lisa mentioned.
Brennan says it was the counseling and optimistic influence from lecturers that helped him regain his confidence to succeed.
“Ultimately I pulled myself collectively and obtained by way of it and I grew to become scholar council president on the college I used to be at, and I used to be additionally vice chairman for some time,” he mentioned.
Walker was additionally on the talk group and competed within the battle of the books. Now, he’s headed to Florida Memorial College in Miami, an HBCU, after graduating a semester early.
“I form of suppose I picked it simply because I form of wished to be round extra folks of shade and I form of wished to additionally depart Michigan as a result of I really feel like I do know lots of people right here – and I wish to be surrounded by new folks,” Brennan mentioned.
Walker is contemplating majoring in biology throughout his time in school.