Teen aims high; quadriplegic boy shoots targets near Red Bluff with modified rifle

Derek Jellison (center), a middle school student who is quadriplegic, learns how to shoot a specially modified rifle Wednesday at Red Bank Ale & Quail Outfitters in Tehama County. Assisting Jellison are (from left) his father, Dillon Jellison, ranch manager Ric Gould, Derek Jellison’s brother Dustin and Max Fregoso, whose El Dorado Hills-based Fregoso Outdoor Foundation sponsored the daylong hunter safety session.

Using his mouth, 14-year-old Derek Jellison was rewarded after his hunter safety course Wednesday by firing at targets in a field six miles west of Red Bluff.

It was no small feat for the Redding teen, a quadriplegic since surgery for a brainstem tumor two years ago.

He and others were guests of El Dorado Hills-based Fregoso Outdoor Foundation, which has provided numerous sporting activities for veterans, most of them injured, since it was launched nearly a year ago.