Bricktown shooting victim awake, improving every day, family says in statement

Well, Norman, they did.

The team will indeed advance to the NBA's Western Conference Finals, with the series opener scheduled for Sunday in San Antonio. But the Thunder fan base will likely remain shell-shocked for a while by Monday's postgame shooting incident that injured nine, including Richards.

The 22-year-old remains in critical condition at OU Medical Center, the only victim who is still hospitalized.

Richards had attended the basketball game and was a random victim to the violence, his family said in a statement released Thursday.

“We want to be clear that Norman had no involvement in anything leading up to the incident on Monday night,” the family wrote. “He was simply a fan leaving the game and happened to be in the wrong place when the incident occurred.”

The letter was signed by Richards' parents, Norman Richards Sr. and Elonda Quinn-Powell, and his sister, Sophia Richards.

The Del City parents called Norman a loving son and devoted father to a young boy, Trey. They also thanked a couple bystanders who just might have saved Norman's life.

Giving thanks

One of those bystanders, Brandon Hall, said he was glad to be able to help.

“At first obviously we didn't know what to do, people were scattering. But then we saw a guy unconscious, lying on the ground,” Hall said on Thursday.

Hall, a maintenance technician at Chesapeake Energy, trained previously as a paramedic. He and his father-in-law had just left the game and were headed to their car when they heard gunshots and dropped to the concrete.