Family healing after Cleveland County deadly shooting

CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. — It's been six months since a frightening shooting scene unfolded in front of a Cleveland County school bus stop.

The crime changed one young boy's life forever.

His parents were shot right in front of him.

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His mother was killed and his father is still recovering.

Jeff Oaks still has bullet fragments in his head and part of his skull is gone.

"Give me a thumbs up? Good deal,” Diana Oaks, Jeff Oak’s mother, said.

Oaks can't speak, but still has his own way of letting his family know he's OK and his sons know he loves them.

“It's amazing how he just likes to watch them," Diana said.

Family members said he doesn't appear to have any memories of the shooting that unfolded a few feet away from his son's bus stop in January.

"I don't think he remembers that day. We'll never know I don't think," Lena Massey, Jeff’s mother-in-law said.

Sheriff's investigators said Jeff got into a confrontation that day with his neighbor, Robert Bridges.

Investigators allege that Bridges pulled out a gun and shot Jeff and his wife, with their son standing feet away.

Myla Oaks was killed.

Jeff Oaks survived, but still lives in pain to this day.

His recovery is part of his entire family's healing.

"The boys didn't lose everything, they still have their dad. Even if it’s not the way it was before, they still have him," Massey said.

The Oaks’s young son, Jeffrey, doesn't say 'much' about what he saw happen that day, but loves spending time with his dad.

"I love you," Jeff’s son, who goes by Jeffrey, said.

"It brings back some memories, basically," Jeffrey said. Memories before the shooting.

"I hug him and say “I love you’,” Aden Oaks, the father's other young son, said.

His sons visit once a week to heal together.

"Continue to pray that he will make more recovery. We know that it won't be 100%," Diana said.

Doctors are working on making a mold to cover the shattered parts of his skull.

Cox Media Group

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