Oakland boy paralyzed by shooting gets ultimate Halloween costume
Ten-year-old Asa Luo, of Oakland, just became the coolest kid in school. His Halloween costume is a sight to behold. Tricked out with custom wheels and flames coming out of the exhaust pipe, his wheelchair has been turned into a replica from Mario Kart. "I love Mario Kart," Asa said. "I am pretty excited."The joy on his face was equally received by his father, Caesar. “The normalization of his disability and being in a wheelchair is incredible," he said. More than two years ago, Asa was hit in the neck by a stray bullet while a shooting broke out on Interstate 580. Asa lost all feeling from the neck down and has been paralyzed ever since. While they adjust to this new reality, the Luo family says they want to do everything to make sure Asa lives a normal life. "This is just another Friday for him, and I love that," Caesar said. "I love that he feels safe and he feels secure and he feels happy.” The nonprofit organization Magic Wheelchair designs and builds costumes for wheelchair bound children to use on Halloween. The organization says it takes around six months to fully design and build everything. Their mission is to make people see the person and not the disability. "It shouldn't be about disability, it should be about ability," said Cory Hunt, an Oakland police officer and builder of the costume. "You are now going to see this awesome kid and this awesome costume, and everything else doesn’t matter. Those micro moments throughout a kid's life, I think, are impactful.”At Chabot Elementary on Friday, Asa was the star of his class. All of his friends wanted to share the moment with him, something his parents hope continues as he gets older. "There is this daily struggle to have a loved one in your family with a disability," Caesar said. "This takes so much weight off of that. Something like this that he can do himself that no one else has."See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
