‘There Was No Other Option’: Honeybee Shooting Survivor Walks Again Within a Year of Attack

Josh Garza is able to laugh now.

The 20-year-old can also sit up, dress himself, walk without help from other people and sing. Garza said he laughed at the doctors who at one time told him that he may not even live through the night, after he was shot in the head about a year ago.

Garza was attacked by Gary Amaya, the man police linked to shootings and attempted robberies in Illinois and Indiana, and was .

On Oct. 5, 2010, Garza was rehabbing a house in Beecher with his longtime friend Matt Burton, now 21, and 45-year-old Rolando Alonso, when Amaya walked up to them and made idle small talk, mentioning honeybees before opening fire.

Garza was hit by a bullet near his right eye. While Burton dodged the gunfire, Alonso was killed in the attack.

Garza then spent about 10 weeks in the hospital recovering, and still continues therapy.

His tremendous progress in physical rehabilitation, against all odds and predictions, led to being awarded one of ’s Rehabilitation Patients of the Year.

Garza expressed gratitude to his therapists, his mother Karen and fiancée Brittany Dickson during the ceremony.

“Find something you love and hold on to it,” Garza said, about what it took to persevere. “That’s all you really can do in a situation like this.”