- Devin, 17, was shot twice during a violent home invasion by masked intruders after a school acquaintance lured him into opening the door.
- He survived catastrophic arm and leg injuries, underwent 13 surgeries, and spent months relearning how to walk while his mother stayed by his side.
- Several offenders pled guilty, while the main teen involved was later sentenced; Devin, now 27, continues to live with PTSD and lasting injuries but remains resilient.
Here Nicole Howard, 50 tells her story in her own words.
Standing on the factory floor where I worked, my phone rang in my pocket.
It was my son, Devin, then 17, calling. ‘Hey love,’ I answered.
‘You need to come home now, I’m going to die,’ he panted.
‘What are you talking about?’ I panicked, sensing the terror in his voice.
I heard him take a deep breath and the sound of his throat gurgling, then silence… ‘There’s so much blood,’ I heard someone say in the background.
‘Devin!’ I screamed down the phone – but no-one replied.
Hanging up, I dialled Emergency. ‘Someone is on their way,’ the operator said.
There’s so much blood…
Heart racing, I felt sick as I wondered what could have happened to my sweet boy.
An avid baseball player, he did well at school and never got into any trouble. I kept trying to call Devin back, but it was no use.
Then finally a police officer answered. ‘I’m sorry to tell you that your son has been shot twice,’ he said.
Chillingly, I could hear someone performing CPR in the background.
My heart dropped. Falling to the ground, I screamed, ‘My son’s been killed!’
People from work gathered around, trying to calm me down as I hyperventilated.
My supervisor Sharif grabbed my phone to speak to the police officer.
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My son’s been killed!
‘He’s alive, but it’s critical,’ Sharif told me.
One of my colleagues, Steve, drove me to the hospital, 35 minutes away.
On the drive I phoned my parents, Mary, then 59, and Bob, 55, who agreed to meet me there.
‘I need to get there before he dies,’ I said to Steve, terrified I’d lose my baby boy.
When we arrived, I was whisked away to a room with Mum and Dad where a surgeon spoke to us.
‘You can see him before surgery, but his chances aren’t good,’ he warned.
He explained that Devin had been shot twice – in his left forearm and also in his left leg between his knee and hip.
He’d lost half his blood and doctors were worried the wounds were at risk of becoming infected.
Walking in to see Devin, I knew I had to be brave, but when I saw my boy lying there, covered in blood-soaked bandages, my heart shattered.
Although I couldn’t see his injuries, doctors told me the wound on his arm had obliterated the skin and muscles, and was likely from a shotgun.
‘You need to hang in there. You’ve got this,’ I said to my boy. ‘Thanks, Mum. You’ll be okay if I die,’ he mumbled groggily, before he was wheeled into the operating theatre.
It took surgeons more than six hours to debride his wounds, removing the dead skin to decrease the chance of him getting an infection.
Devin mainly slept for the next few days, as well as having two more ops for more debridement.
Doctors also took skin and muscles from his right thigh to rebuild the chunk missing from his left arm.
I stayed by Devin’s side through it all, holding his hand as he recovered.
‘You’re so brave,’ I told him.
By day 10, Devin was finally more himself as he recounted what had happened that awful night…
While I’d been at work, he was home alone when *Tom, a kid from school, showed up asking if he could use the bathroom.
Tom had been over at our place before, so Devin let him in.
But suddenly, his demeanour changed. ‘Someone is going to raid the home,’ Tom warned, eerily.
Devin thought it was a joke, but when he heard banging on the door seconds later, he ran to the bathroom.
Tom answered the door and four boys – all wearing masks – charged into the house.
My poor boy then ran to the kitchen, where one of the intruders hit him with a gun, sending him crashing to the floor.
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One of them then held a shotgun to his temple, threatening, ‘If you move, I’ll blow your brains out.’
He then shot Devin in his left arm, shattering the bone, and in his left leg before fleeing, leaving my boy for dead.
Devin had no idea who the other boys were.
They’d also stolen multiple electronic items, such as computers and Xboxes, as well as my family heirloom jewellery.
But that was nothing compared to what they’d done to Devin.
I stayed at the hospital the whole time, sleeping on a chair next to my son.
For months Devin had to stay in hospital, where he relearned how to walk.
He had 13 operations in total, including repairing his shattered bone with a metal rod and having debulking procedures to remove the excess fatty tissues in his wounds.
I was there when Devin took his first steps.
‘Look at you go,’ I teared up as he smiled back at me.
Around a month after the incident, police charged one teen, Vavadean Valentine Spence, then 18, with aggravated assault, robbery with a firearm, break and enter, and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
He denied the charges.
In time, the others – Jacob David Latendresse, 18, and Anthony Lloyd Laughing, 19, and two minors – all pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and break and enter.
Latendresse got nine months in jail, while Laughing was sentenced to 12 months.
Finally, after four months in hospital, Devin was discharged.
Too afraid to go back to our place, he moved in with my uncle, Mike, and aunt, Lynn.
Seven months after the attack, I sold our home and we moved into a new one.
Devin still had a long way to go with his recovery and he’d missed so much school that he had to retake a year.
‘You’ll get there,’ I promised him.
In June 2017, we went to court where Vavadean Spence had his trial.
Docs repaired his shattered bone with a metal rod
I was so proud as Devin bravely faced his attacker, and read aloud his victim impact statement.
‘I am now the person who wakes up to their mum shaking them awake because I’m having such a bad nightmare,’ he said.
Spence, then 20, was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison that November.
It didn’t feel nearly enough for what my boy has been through. Devin, now 27, still suffers from PTSD after the brutal attack.
The fingers in his left hand don’t grip things properly and he still experiences pain in his leg.
Despite going through such hard times, we both know things could have been very different – and so much worse.
His life is more limited but he still enjoys it, whether he’s catching up with friends or hanging out with me.
I’m so grateful that my boy is still here and so proud of his undeniable courage.
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