Phila. Police Officer Returns To Force Years After Being Shot In The Line Of Duty
By Walt Hunter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- 993 days after a bullet slammed into his body inside a Feltonville store as he fought with an armed robber, Officer Ed Davies has now returned to the force. His wife snapped a picture of him with his son, one of four children, as he set off to resume the job he loves.
"My son's excited. I'm excited. Here I am and I'm back," Officer Davies told Eyewitness News, in an exclusive interview, as he took his new assignment at the Police Training Center in Northeast Philadelphia.
From the moment his now convicted attacker pulled the trigger, point blank, in August 2013, it has been an agonizing journey.
"I remember hearing a bang. My chest and stomach got hot and I said, I'm hit," Officer Davies said.
After three weeks in an induced coma and 37 in the Intensive Care Unit, Officer Davies was finally released, his injuries so horrific that, for the first few weeks, no one knew from moment to moment if he would survive.
"I have four kids and a wife. That's all I thought about. That's what made me pull through," he explained.
Doctors and police say 993 days ago there was another hero, Davies fellow 25th District Officer Shawntai Cooper, who raced him to the hospital, arriving seconds before he would have died from blood loss. As Davies showed us around his new work place, the Police Training Center, suddenly his 1st day back got even better. There was Officer Cooper who coincidentally was assigned to attend a class there. Exchanging hugs, Officer Cooper told Eyewitness News, "I'm glad he's back. I missed him a lot. I'm elated."
As to why an officer, who paid such a terrible price, was so determined to return to his job, Officer Davies responded he "didn't want to have him win, more or less, when he shot me. I wanted to come back, come back on my own terms. I love the job, I love the men and women. It's a family."
