Young shooting victim shows gains

As his mother sat at a table in the basement of the Greater Love Tabernacle in Dorchester and addressed the media, A.J. took sips from a frozen treat, played with a teddy bear, and reacted negatively, with a head shake, to his mother’s disclosure that he would begin physical training today.

A.J. returned home from Boston Medical Center a couple of days ago. Although he is doing well in many ways, the trauma has taken its toll.

“He doesn’t want to go to the park,’’ said his mother, Sharelle Turner, 32, of Dorchester.

A.J. was with his mother at the park when the shooting occurred. The energetic boy often played for hours at the expansive new playground. He was struck in the lower back.

A crowd, including many children, was also there but scattered when the shots rang out.

“He knows he was hurt at the park, but he doesn’t fully understand that he was shot,’’ Turner said. “He’s been himself but he doesn’t like the crowds, he doesn’t like a lot of people around. He’s been kind of mean towards new people, which is kind of understandable.’’

For days, A.J. was in intensive care at Boston Medical Center.

He was unresponsive and his body was swollen. His family feared that he would be paralyzed, but doctors soon determined that he didn’t suffer any such damage to his spinal column.

His mother said he has undergone two surgeries and is expected to face another operation soon.

Yesterday, A.J. displayed his progress in walking. After being coaxed out of the car by the Rev. William Dickerson, pastor of the church, A.J. planted his feet on the sidewalk and, with his mother supporting him, took several tentative steps before sitting in the wheelchair. Dickerson wiped tears from A.J.’s eyes.

Following the shooting, Harambee Park has become a focal point in an antiviolence campaign.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino banned the use of motorbikes in the park and residents and clergy held peace cookouts there, events aimed at reclaiming the spacious neighborhood park bordered by Blue Hill and Talbot avenues.

A.J.’s progress in the past month has been ahead of the timetable given by the doctors who treated him, his mother said.