Niners rookie WR Ricky Pearsall watches practice five days after shooting
San Francisco 49ers rookie receiver Ricky Pearsall was at practice as a spectator five days after being shot in the chest during an attempted robbery.
Pearsall was hit in the chest and hospitalized overnight after the shooting in central San Francisco on Saturday. He was released from the hospital Sunday and was already back at the team facility Monday.
He spent the early part of practice open to reporters walking around the field holding a football.
"It’s kind of been amazing, just watching him," coach Kyle Shanahan said. "For him to be able to walk around and stuff with that happening, talking to people at the ER, them saying out of like 100 people, two people survive that. To be able to see him the next day and just that he is able to walk, he’s coming to meetings, he’s doing all that."
The Niners placed Pearsall on the non-football injury list, which will sideline him for at least four weeks, giving him time to recover physically and emotionally from the shooting.
Shanahan said Pearsall plans to take a week or so before starting his rehab process to get back on the field.
Pearsall was walking alone carrying shopping bags to his car shortly after 3:30 p.m. Saturday when a juvenile suspect attempted to rob him with a gun in the Union Square area, officials said. The 17-year-old was arraigned in juvenile court on attempted murder charges Wednesday.
Officers in the area responded immediately and provided emergency medical aid and arrested the suspect. Pearsall was shown on video from a witness with a large chest wound as he was helped into an ambulance.
Pearsall was fortunate that the bullet went through his body without damaging any organs or nerves.
"Where he got shot is like two inches below his tattoo with praying