The year he turned 18, while his classmates went to prom and graduated from high school, Nehemiah Montes’ biggest accomplishment was moving an arm and feeling sensation in his right leg.
Montes missed those hallmark life moments, and will likely miss many more, because he was shot three times last December during a robbery in Richmond, just 10 days before his 18th birthday.
While Richmond’s homicide rate has declined significantly, hitting a historic low last year, there was a surge in gun violence at the end of 2025. Between October and Dec. 31, there were 50 reports of people shot or shot at, according to the Richmond Police Department.
Of the 25 people who were struck by bullets, most were between the ages of 18 and 29. Three were 17 or younger, police told Richmondside.
Montes, who was 17 and living with his brother in Hayward so he could go to school in San Lorenzo, was visiting Richmond with friends when they were ambushed and robbed as they left an apartment building, said his mother, Mireya Montes.
Montes was the only one hit, taking bullets in the face, chest and stomach, as his friend handed over jewelry to the assailants.
“He and his friends were hanging out with these girls every weekend,” said his mother, who lives in Oakland. “They had been for a while. This time, they had another girl with them, who called (the suspects) and said ‘We’re with these boys — come and get them.’ ”
Montes told Richmondside they believe it was a set-up.
Richmond police spokesperson Lt. Donald Patchin told Richmondside that in May police arrested two adults, ages 26 and 21, and two juveniles, both from Richmond, in connection with the Dec. 13 shooting on Sixth Street and Lucas Avenue, in the Iron Triangle, where most of the city’s 2025 homicides happened.
Contra Costa County District Attorney Spokesperson Ted Asregadoo said formal charges haven’t been filed against the four suspects as the investigation continues.
The fallout from one shooting: 12 surgeries, four hospitals
A GoFundMe to help
A GoFundMe was established to help pay for teen shooting victim Nehemiah Montes’ care. They have raised nearly $22,000 of their $26,000 goal.
Montes has had at least 12 surgeries in almost seven months and has been continually hospitalized in four different facilities. He’s now hospitalized in San Francisco but will eventually be moved to a long-term facility.
Mireya Montes said her son’s prognosis frequently changes, but doctors expect he’ll eventually breathe on his own, though he will have limited mobility, and will likely need daily care for the rest of his life.
Three surgeries involved his head, including one to remove part of his skull and another to drain fluid on his brain.
He suffers from frequent infections and still requires a surgery to have a plate put in his head. He recently had his lungs drained; five of his surgeries have been related to lung infections, his mother said. He also recently had a blood transfusion.
“He had so many surgeries when he came in. He still has a bullet in his spine and one in his neck,” his mother said. “They can’t do MRIs on him because of the metal. They probably can’t take those bullets out; they said taking them out is riskier for him.”
Montes’ older brother, Max Posada, said he has improved in ways they didn’t think possible in December.
“His original prognosis regarding his brain function was extremely grim, but today, he is completely there mentally,” Posada said. “He understands everything happening around him, recognizes everyone, remembers his life and communicates his thoughts, fears and plans for the future.”
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“My mom is what keeps me going. She is here every day and her love is what keeps me going.“
— Richmond shooting victim Nehemiah Montes
Montes can’t speak because he’s breathing through a tracheotomy tube. He communicates by writing on a whiteboard or texting with his right hand.
“My mom is what keeps me going,” Montes said, in a text to Richmondside. “She is here every day and her love is what keeps me going. My auntie Maria motivates me not to give up. My family’s support gives me strength.”
He said his goal is to be “my normal self again.” He said his friends Facetime him every day.
“They are going to throw a big party for me when I get out; I’m super excited about that,” he wrote.
Posada said in some ways his brother’s awareness makes what he’s going through harder to witness.
“His mind is fully there, but his body will not allow him to speak, move, or care for himself,” Posada said. “He knows exactly what has happened to him and understands how much of his life is passing while he remains confined to a hospital bed.”
Mireya Montes said her son, who planned on becoming a firefighter because he wants to help people, is determined. A close family friend is a chief with the Oakland Fire Department.
Montes keeps passing milestones doctors said probably weren’t possible.
“Before it was like ‘He’s going to be a vegetable,’ ” his mother said. “Then his brain started coming back and they said ‘Oh, he’s going to be paralyzed.’ Now he’s moving his arm and his right leg.”
He is undergoing light physical therapy while sitting up.
“He can only do about 20 minutes at a time,” his mother said. “He has sores and he can’t sit.”
Montes is familiar with the health care system. She has worked at Oakland’s Highland Hospital for 19 years, registering emergency room patients.
She stopped working for the first few months after the shooting and then went back part-time, allowing her to keep her medical benefits. She works from 8 a.m. until noon, then drives to San Francisco to stay with her son through the evening.
Then she goes home, goes to bed and starts over the next morning. She compared herself to a robot that just keeps going.
“I’m barely holding up,” Montes said. “I’m just overwhelmed. I have support, but ultimately it falls on me.”
The experience of what happened to her son forced her to make a change at her job.
“Since this happened, I can’t work in the ER anymore,” she said. “Whenever a trauma comes in, my heart stops.”
Her sister, Maria Montes, stays with her nephew at the hospital overnight during the week, sleeping on a cot and working remotely during the day so he isn’t alone.
On weekend nights, they watch him via an iPad in the room with Facetime open. This started after they suspected he wasn’t getting the overnight care he needed.
“I miss him,” his mother said. “I miss having an 18-year-old boy jumping around.”
She said the hospital is discussing sending her son to a long-term facility but is having difficulty finding one that will take a patient his age. She realizes she may end up traveling to Sacramento to see him.
“I’m just crossing my fingers that it’ll be close to me,” she said.
Posada said his brother knows the prognosis isn’t good. But he’s still optimistic.
“It is hard to explain what it feels like to have your little brother write to you that he is afraid to fall asleep because he may not wake up,” Posada said. “Despite all this, he still chooses to focus on the possibility of getting better.
“He thanks God that he is still here, and he holds tightly to the idea that he is going to leave the hospital one day,” he said. “He constantly writes or texts asking whether we can go to Disneyland or Great Wolf Lodge (in Manteca) when he gets out. He talks about getting a cane corso puppy when he comes home. He says he wants to live with me and my 2-year-old son, who is his only nephew.”
Posada said his brother also wants to face the people who dramatically changed his life.
“My brother has explicitly written that he wants to be in the courtroom,” Posada said. “He wants to face the people responsible for what happened to him, even if that means being brought into the courtroom from a hospital or medical facility.
“He has already lost the ability to use his physical voice and nearly all of his independence. We do not want the voice he still has through his writing to also be lost in the justice system simply because he remains confined to a hospital bed.”
This story was updated to reflect a new fundraising goal.
I was shot my senior year 1983 in Pinole GSW point blank to chest at 7-11. Over bumping car door . PTSD is real. I never graduated. Mistrial and Stocking from him. I was never contacted by county or state for any help what so ever.