Edmonton pizza restaurant worker who was shot suffers setback in recovery

A pizza restaurant employee, who was shot last month by the same teen police believe killed two officers days later, has suffered a setback in his recovery due to a suspected brain infection, his family says.

Rich Albert, 55, was shot at a Pizza Hut in northwest Edmonton on March 12. Police say the suspect is a 16-year-old boy who on March 16 fatally shot two officers in a nearby apartment complex.

Albert suffered a traumatic brain injury and lost his left eye and has been in hospital since the shooting. 

His health experienced a major setback after his temperature started rising.

Rich Albert was moved to a traumatic brain injury rehabilitation facility in the last week of March. He was scheduled to return home on April 21 after undergoing weekly physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and speech and memory therapy.

"On April 5, he had a myoclonic seizure," his sister, Leslie Albert, said in an emailed statement. Myoclonic seizures are brief, shock-like seizures in muscles.

"He was placed in isolation and, because the rehab facility isn't equipped to deal with this medical condition, Rich was transported to a hospital," she said.

'Watch and wait'

Leslie Albert said her brother's temperature returned to normal on Saturday thanks to antibiotics and antivirals.

But he has not spoken and is now also being treated for blood clots in his lungs. It's unclear when he'll be discharged from the hospital.

The extent of the damage caused by the fever remains unclear, she said. 

"With the fever gone, we were hopeful that he would be more alert and able to verbalize," she said. "Sadly, that has not been the case." Before the fever, he was able to talk and stand with assistance.

His sister said the outlook for his recovery once looked bright.

His future is now uncertain, and that has taken an immense toll on both Albert and his wife, Norma, and the rest of the family.

"All we can do is watch and wait helplessly," she said. 

Police have said the gun used to shoot Albert was the same weapon used by a teen who killed the two Edmonton police officers.

Constables Brett Ryan, 30, and Travis Jordan, 35, were responding to a family dispute at the apartment complex in the northwestern part of the city when they were shot multiple times.

Police say the teen then shot and wounded his mother in a struggle for the gun before shooting and killing himself.

Deputy Chief Devin Laforce said a bullet casing recovered from the Pizza Hut was forensically matched to the gun recovered from the apartment.

Police are investigating both cases. Albert said the family has been given no additional information by the detectives. 

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship, which is not involved in the editorial process.