Boy, 12, Wounded on Freeway Regains Speech : Violence: Richard Bautista makes quick progress in recovery, but it is unknown whether he will walk again.

To the delight of doctors and family members, Richard Bautista, the 12-year-old Whittier boy shot through the brain while riding in a car after a Dodgers game, is now able to speak.

Clutching his mother’s hand and wearing a soccer jersey sent to him by his favorite soccer player, Marcelo Balboa of the U.S. soccer team, Richard said in a soft but determined voice, “Hi, everybody.”

And then Richard, an altar boy, thanked God.

“It’s a miracle. . . . It’s a miracle,” said Richard’s father, Hector Bautista, who has kept a vigil at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

“Richard has exceeded our short-term projections for his recovery,” said Dr. Samuel Biggers, vice chairman of the hospital’s neurosciences department. “Such short-term gains augur well for a speedier rehabilitation than we had a right to expect.”

Shot by an unidentified gunman on the Harbor Freeway while heading home to Whittier in his cousin’s car on Sept. 22, Richard was wounded in both hemispheres of his brain and lost what Biggers called “the main vein that drains the brain.”

It remains unclear when or if Richard will be able to walk. Nevertheless, he now opens his eyes fully, focuses and recognizes his parents and doctors and can speak sentences, officials announced at a news conference Friday.

Because Richard’s condition has stabilized, the boy was scheduled to be transferred to the Kaiser-Permanente Hospital in West Los Angeles Friday night, as required by his family’s insurance plan; he will be placed in an intensive care unit for a few days.

“It’s hard to prognosticate,” said Dr. Rosalinda Menoni, director of King hospital’s inpatient services. “But [Richard] personally promised to invite me to watch him play his first soccer game.”

Richard’s mother, Ramona Bautista, said that on Thursday, as she sat by her son’s bed, he said, “Mom,” and then squeezed her hand.

“I had to cry,” she said, “and I called everyone at work.”

Doctors attribute Richard’s recovery to youth and his physical fitness as a soccer player.

But he faces months of therapy and emotional trauma, doctors said, as he remembers the events surrounding the shooting.

Richard told doctors that he remembers bright lights in connection with a “disconcerting” feeling.

A van was shining its headlights into the car just before the shooting, according to his cousin, Cynthia Ibarra, 18, who was driving the boy and her friend home from the baseball game.

Police have no suspects in the shooting; anyone with information is asked to call the Los Angeles Police Department at (213) 237-1310.