Associated Press

WATERLOO, Ia. — Authorities are re-examining a 15-year-old shooting after an Iowa man wounded in the incident recently died from complications related to the gunshot wounds.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports police reclassified the unsolved case as a homicide instead of an assault.

Sherry Powers said she is just trying to adjust to the loss of her younger brother, Shawn Michael North. Powers has been helping care for her brother, who was paralyzed after the shooting.

“Since Shawn was shot, I was the one taking care of Shawn. So, 14 years of getting calls in the middle of the night, all hours of the day . I’m trying to find myself without Shawn,” Powers said.

North lived on disability since the shooting. He eventually bought a house down the street from Powers so that she could help take care of him.

Over the years, he endured painful bedsores, and earlier this year, he had surgery to add a colostomy bag.

North died Aug. 30 at age 45. Then a medical examiner determined in late October that North’s death was related to the shooting.

North was injured on May 21, 2001. North told police at the time that two men had confronted him and tried to take his truck before the shooting. When he refused, he was shot and the two men fled.

Neighbors called police after finding North screaming and moaning in a driveway. His spinal cord was damaged by the bullets, and he was paralyzed from the sternum down. Evidence from the scene was entered into a national database, but it hasn’t led to any arrests.

“We will go back and look at the case and talk to potential witnesses and see if there are any leads we can follow up on,” Waterloo Police Capt. David Mohlis said.