Gael Canizales stood on a seat peering out of the window at a Juárez restaurant when a bullet shattered the glass and pierced the 4-year-old's tiny waist.

On that September day, the Canizales family had gone to visit relatives in Juárez.

It wasn't a special occasion, Carla Nava, Gael's mother said. They had simply decided to have dinner with her parents and her grandmother at an Applebee's restaurant on Avenida Paseo Triunfo de la Republica.

The family chatted as it placed an order. Gael was standing on a seat, looking out a window with his father's protective arm wrapped around his waist making sure he didn't fall, his mother recalled.

Gunfire rang out. They grabbed Gael and ducked for cover. But it was too late.

Gael had been struck by the bullet, which pierced through his waist, and hit his father Ricardo Canizales' on the arm. The shooting left Gael in need of a kidney transplant and unable to walk.

“Everything happened so quickly,” Nava said in an interview with the El Paso Times while her son slept on a sofa in the family's Northeast El Paso home. “We didn’t even know if it (the shooting) was happening outside or inside.”

"My son was bleeding. A few seconds later, my husband noticed that he was bleeding, too," Nava said.

Members of the family were innocent bystanders caught in the violence that has marred the Mexican border city. On that day, they were caught in the middle of what Juárez news media describes as a gang attack on a rival killed in the restaurant.

There have been more than 1,100 murders in Juárez this year, including more than 80 deaths in November, according to a tally kept by Channel 44-XHIJ.

"They were horrible hours," Nava said. " ... Thank God, no one else was hurt."

'May lose him forever'

After the shooting, an ambulance arrived and took to the boy to a “hospital,” Nava said using air quotes.

She described the hospital as poorly equipped. The boy lay on a bed with no sheets. Medical equipment was lacking and there were no doctors, she said.

Nava said she had to hold a cloth on her son’s wound as they waited for help for what seemed like an eternity. Gael was still bleeding and was starting to lose consciousness.

She pondered getting an ambulance to take him to a hospital across the border in El Paso.

Medical staff told the mother that if she moved her son to another hospital she "may lose him forever." She was frightened and later a doctor arrived, and surgery began.

“It was a very long operation. It was six hours of not knowing what was happening,” Nava said.

Gael survived. He was later transported by ambulance to El Paso Children’s Hospital.

The family learned that the bullet hit Gael’s spine and that he was no longer able to walk, his mother said. One kidney was damaged in the shooting and doctors discovered the boy’s other kidney didn’t function.

At El Paso Children’s Hospital, Gael improved quickly and was released in about two weeks, Nava said. But the boy has had to keep returning for follow up procedures and surgeries. He underwent surgery to remove his non-functioning kidney a few weeks ago in El Paso.

“Since then, it’s been a week at the hospital, a week at home," Nava said.

'Why did they shoot me?'

On a recent afternoon, Gael was sleeping wearing Star Wars pajamas and Batman socks on his feet, his head on a Spider-Man pillow and his favorite toy dog next to him.

Gael uses a child-sized wheelchair but it is too large for him and he is in need of a smaller chair, Nava said.

“For his age, he understands what happened to him," his mother said sobbing. "He asked, 'Why did they shoot me?' Why did they do this to him? We explained to him: ‘No, it wasn’t directed at you, mi amor.'"

In the last three months, Nava noticed her son twice has appeared depressed.

"Yo quiero caminar, mami,” Nava said Gael told her, saying he wanted to walk.

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Photos of the young family — dad, mom and their two kids — decorate the walls of the living room of the Canizales home. A 2018-19 school calendar with a Gael’s smiling face is tacked on a wall.

Gael is a pre-kindergartener at John E. Uxer Head Start but has been unable to return to school since what his mom refers to as “the accident.” He also attended a daycare program at Parkland High School.

“He was very playful,” his mom said, emphasizing the word “was.” “But now that he can’t walk, he really doesn’t play with his toys. It’s rare when he plays now.”

Gael still enjoys playing with his sister and solving puzzles, watching movies and playing video games on his tablet, his mother added.

Gael's father works in refrigeration and returned to work about a week ago after having surgery to remove the bullet lodged in his arm, she said.

Nava spends her time taking care of her son, bathing, feeding him and taking him to medical appointments. He goes to dialysis treatment three times a week.

A difficult time

It has been a financially difficult time for the family, she said. The family needs help paying medical bills, the rent and even money for gas to take Gael to his appointments.

The family is dad, Ricardo Canizales and mom, Carla, both 25, Gael and his 6-year-old sister, Melany Canizales.

The Canizales children will receive new winter coats from Operation Noel, the annual El Paso-area giving campaign that runs from Thanksgiving through Christmas Day.

Gael needs a kidney transplant but he can’t have a transplant until he fully recovers from the shooting, his mother said, holding Gael in her lap after he woke up from his nap.

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When the time for the transplant arrives next year, he will have to travel to San Antonio for the surgery, his mom said.

As Christmas approaches, Nava said she is counting her family’s blessings.

“I’m happy,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m happy that I still have him with me.”

Daniel Borunda may be reached at 546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter.

Operation Noel

Donations can be sent to Operation Noel, 201 E. Main St., Suite 1603, El Paso, TX 79901. Information: 351-0408 or operationnoel.org.

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help Gael Canizales.