Shot on a Baltimore playground, trauma for ‘rest of his life’: 11-year-old faces tough recovery

Tristen Goode Jordan is struggling to speak.

For more than a week, breathing was also difficult as he lay in a hospital bed, heavily sedated, shifting between consciousness and sleep with a breathing tube lodged in his throat.

Heavy painkillers help reduce the pain from his hip, leg, foot, spine, lungs and kidney — all places struck by a barrage of bullets, said his grandmother Diane Ferrell.

Jordan’s battle to survive comes just two weeks after he was repeatedly struck by stray bullets while playing on a school jungle gym in Upton in May. A 26-year-old, who police believe was the intended mark, was also shot.

While Baltimore has been experiencing a historic reduction in violence, nonfatal shootings like Jordan’s are still an unfortunate reality for many families. As of Wednesday, there have been 135 nonfatal shootings in the city in 2026, five more than there were at this time last year.

Police are still investigating Jordan’s shooting and have not made any arrests in the case.

Shortly after the shooting, Mayor Brandon Scott called it “another case of weak-ass men who cannot solve their dispute without gunfire.”

“Someone knows who did this. If you know who they are, if that’s your son, tell them what’s the only thing left to keep their dignity and turn themselves in,” Scott said. “If you are helping these people hide, we will come for you.”

Every day he wakes, Jordan can reach a milestone. His most recent was being able to take in air without help. Ferrell said doctors removed the breathing tube on Sunday.

But his injuries and pain persist.

One bullet, too tricky to remove, remains lodged in his hip. Metal fragments from shrapnel are still scattered in his limbs, Ferrell said.

Nate Brown, Jordan’s uncle, Facetimed with Jordan’s mother this week. He’s now out of the intensive care unit. Medically stable but physically debilitated, Jordan must now learn to walk again and process the reality of the trauma he has endured.

“Shooting up a playground outside of a school is horrendous behavior,” Brown said. “Handgun violence is out of control, and there’s no place for it anywhere.”

An ordinary Wednesday

It was an ordinary Wednesday.

Jordan had just returned to his Upton home after spending Memorial Day weekend jumping on the trampoline with cousins at his grandmother’s house.

The boy, who Brown described as not having a “bad bone” in his body, was settling back into his weekly routine: Furman L. Templeton Elementary School during the day. Video games or the playground with friends in the afternoon. Back home before nightfall.

Tucked into a corner near a bustling intersection, Jordan played on the school’s jungle gym with his younger brother and other children.

They didn’t notice, less than 70 feet away, a white four-door sedan barreling down the 1100 block of Pennsylvania Avenue.

The car came to a hard stop. Two people dressed all in black emerged from the vehicle with rifles and sprayed a shower of bullets in their direction, according to video released by police.

As ammunition cut through the muggy air, Jordan was struck seven times, his grandmother said.

Responding police officers rushed Jordan and the 26-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, to nearby hospitals.

Ferrell got a call from her son, Jordan’s father, telling her Tristen had been shot at the playground. Without a second thought, she said she rushed to the school. By the time she arrived, her grandson was already in an ambulance en route to the hospital.

For 24 hours, she wasn’t able to see Jordan. Doctors were only permitting parents into his room. So she waited.

She felt a rush of pain when she finally did get to see her grandbaby. He was sedated for more than a week and has undergone numerous procedures, she said.

Jordan has struggled to communicate with his family, constantly nodding in and out of sleep and simply shaking his head when asked questions.

From time to time, he’ll make a heart with his hands, a gesture to say, “I love you,” Ferrell said.

“It really hurt to see him laying in the hospital fighting for his life,” she said. “Something he shouldn’t have been fighting for because somebody wanted to shoot at somebody straight at the playground.”

Jordan’s family does not know when he will be discharged from the hospital, but Ferrell said doctors disclosed that he is just at the beginning of a very long recovery. Physical therapy and learning how to walk again are just the start.

Tristen was slated to graduate from the fifth grade this week, but will not be able to attend the ceremony. Doctors and nurses at the hospital held an informal commencement for him instead, Ferrell said.

Community members have also rallied around Jordan. On Sunday, Peabody Heights Brewery held a fundraiser for his family, raising $2,510.

“He will be dealing with this situation for the rest of his life,” Ferrell said.