Lockport Heights shooting survivor: ‘I’m stronger than his hate’

Melissa Robertson said her heart was pounding when she was at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet to see the man who’s charged with attempting to kill her in Lockport Heights.

On Friday, Robertson, along with her aunt, Jeanne Beyer, were at the courthouse for the pretrial hearing of John Shadbar, 70, the neighbor whom Robertson said intended to kill her and her children in a May 7 shooting.

Shadbar is charged with attempting to murder Robertson, as well as committing a hate crime against her. In court filings, Will County prosecutors alleged Shadbar, who is white, harassed Robertson, who is white, and her son, who is Black, with racist slurs.

Robertson was in a wheelchair and wearing a brace that covered one of her hands after she suffered severe injuries in the shooting that almost claimed her life.

Shadbar’s court hearing was a short, routine pretrial conference. But it was anything but routine for Robertson, who said she was nervous and felt like her “heart was pounding out of my chest.”

But then she said she felt something “powerful.”

“I felt very powerful that I survived this because this court date could’ve been really a lot different,” Robertson said in an interview with CBS2 Chicago and The Herald-News outside the courthouse.

Robertson said she decided to go to court to see Shadbar because she wanted him to know she was still here and he was not going to scare her or her family.

“I’m stronger than his hate. My sons are stronger than his hate. He’s not going to win,” Robertson said.

Robertson said the May 7 shooting was a “horrible event” that she still can’t believe happened. She said she relives that day every day.

“It was almost unreal. It happened so fast,” she said.

Will County sheriff’s deputies responded to the shooting about 5:40 p.m. May 7 in an area of Homer Township known as Lockport Heights.

Witnesses told 911 that Shadbar shot Robertson outside and walked around his property with a rifle, which led to a shelter-in-place alarm for all other residents in the area, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.

Witnesses said Shadbar had fired dozens of rounds of ammunition with an “assault-style rifle” at Robertson, who suffered a gunshot wound to her chest and another to her hand, police said.

Robertson said Shadbar had been harassing her and her family for more than a decade while she’s lived in Lockport Heights but she has no intention of moving. She said they never antagonized Shadbar, whom she said is racist and a “miserable person.”

“His whole point was to make us scared and we’re not going to show that,” Robertson said.

In the past, Shadbar was accused of yelling racist slurs at Robertson and tossing an “M-80 type” firework over her fence and then pointing a gun at Robertson’s friend while calling her degrading and racist insults, prosecutors said.

One of Robertson’s sons told police that Shadbar called his mother and him a racist slur, confronted the son while holding an AK-47 and “fired blank rounds toward the residence in the past,” prosecutors said.

Robertson said she believes the sheriff’s office could have taken away Shadbar’s firearms in the past. Shadbar’s firearm owner’s identification card had been revoked in 1979, according to the sheriff’s office.

“This could’ve been avoided,” Robertson said.

Deputies responded to two complaint calls in March involving Robertson and Shadbar that were resolved and another call regarding Shadbar “shooting fireworks and possibly a gun” over Robertson’s backyard fence, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies spoke with Shadbar and conducted an initial investigation but “due to lack of evidence, no arrest was made at that time,” sheriff officials said.

Robertson said her recovery has been painful and she knows it will take a few years.

“Just to try and sit in bed, it is excruciating sometimes,” she said.

Robertson said she hopes she gains something positive from her experience.

“I don’t know what the future holds but I don’t want somebody else to have to go through this. Or some child to have to feel like because of the color of their skin, you’re going to be looked at differently,” Robertson said.

Robertson is thankful of the support she’s received from her family and the strong bond between her and her children.

Robertson said she knows Shadbar’s case is going to take a long time as well but she plans to grow stronger during that time.

“Every time I come here I’m going to be stronger and stronger. This wheelchair, hopefully, I don’t have it next time,” Robertson said.