Petra survived the shooting and is responding to treatment.
Petra is the grandchild of Bernadean (Linderman) Bateman, who graduated from Powell High School in 1956, according to local sources.
To make matters more difficult for the family, Petra’s mother, Kim Anderson, is battling cancer. Kim is Bateman’s daughter.
“Our family has been shaken by the events of last Friday, but we have not been broken, any more than this community has been broken. And the villain may have intended this as his story, he may have stepped into our world, but we’re watching heroes appear everywhere we look,” said Chloe Anderson, Petra’s sister, in an online video.
“Ready to Believe: Anderson Relief Fund” has been set up to help the family with medical costs.
“The cost for Petra’s surgery is high by itself. On top of Kim’s cancer costs, it looks unscalable,” reads a post on the “Anderson Relief Fund” webpage at www.indiegogo.com/readytobelieve.
“Along with Petra, a huge number of other people were injured or killed by a self-styled ‘Joker,’” the online post continues. “These people, their families, and the Aurora community need your help, whether that help comes through money, thoughts or prayers.”
Organizers of the fund hope to raise $250,000 for the family. The first $100,000 raised will go toward Petra’s surgery and recovery costs. The next $150,000 will be divided between Kim’s cancer treatment and the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance (COVA), a nonprofit tasked by the Aurora Police Department to distribute aid for victims of last week’s shooting.
As of Monday the group had raised nearly $50,000.
A Colorado native, Petra graduated from the University of the Pacific in May with a major in music composition. In 2010, she composed and directed a musical tribute to veterans at the university concert hall. The 22-year-old was headed to the University of Maryland to pursue a graduate degree.
Her boyfriend, Austin Hogan, spoke to The Associated Press by phone from a hospital. Hogan said that Anderson was responding to doctors.
“We have decided that the difficulties and setbacks, and even the disasters, don’t get the last word. We do,” Kim Anderson told the TV station 9News in Colorado.
“I know that God has these things in his hands. When the bullet went through her brain, it traveled through a void in her brain that isn’t normally there, so it traveled through fluid, and not tissue, for most of the way,” Kim continued.
For more information about the
“Ready to Believe: Anderson Relief Fund”
Visit www.indiegogo.com/readytobelieve