Carrera Elite
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Glendale,AZ
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Posted: June 21 2009,8:10 pm |
Post # 20 |
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Officer in grad shooting: I thought this was it
by Nathan Gonzalez - Jun. 13, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Mesa police Officer Steven Cervantes hasn't thought much about the man who shot him.
His focus is on recovering from the four surgeries he has undergone and the two he still needs to repair his shattered left forearm.
"The situation could have gone a lot worse - as worse as what happened to the two victims," Cervantes said Friday in his first interview since the May 23 shooting at a Mesa graduation party.
"I'm sorry for the victims because they ultimately lost their lives. Nobody deserves to lose their life like that."
According to court records, Brent Matthew Banks, 37, admitted beating his ex-girlfriend, Sally Johnson-Huddleston, with a closed fist in a fit of jealousy when he caught her and her current boyfriend, Auston G. Blanks, kissing in a bedroom at the party for the woman's daughter.
Banks told investigators he returned to his pickup and contemplated leaving but grabbed a pair of loaded handguns instead. He walked up to Johnson-Huddleston and shot her, and as she fell on all fours, "he fired and shot into the back of her head," court documents state.
Banks then shot Blanks several times in the chest, they add.
Cervantes was blocks away when he heard "shots fired" on his radio.
He was the second officer on the scene and found chaos, with partygoers running around screaming in the aftermath.
As he was getting out of his squad car, he saw Banks aim a gun in his direction and fire.
"I tried to make contact with him, and he just started shooting at me," Cervantes said. "I remember thinking this is going to be it.
"I recall hearing at least seven shots. I was basically pinned down in my car because of the gunfire. It happened so fast, I couldn't even get to my gun."
Cervantes dived back into his car and slammed it into drive. He doesn't remember exactly when he was hit, but he believes he was shot through the driver's window while he drove away.
"It felt like I had broken my arm," he said. "Everything just starts flashing by you in a situation like that.
"I realized I needed to get out of there. I put the car in drive and was able to get out of the area," he said.
Although it seemed like he drove for miles, it was less than half a block.
Officer Todd Pascarella, a Fraternal Order of Police union representative, was on duty that night. He said it was tough to figure out what was going on. Then, he heard Cervantes on the radio.
"It was difficult to hear that radio traffic going on," he said. "You could hear Steve real calm on the radio, saying, 'I've been shot.' He was so calm.
"To be 3 miles away and to hear that someone you know personally has been shot is hard."
After the shooting, Banks held Mesa SWAT officers at bay for several hours until surrendering.
He since has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and eight counts of aggravated assault because several partygoers were injured.
The ordeal landed Cervantes in the hospital for a week. He underwent four surgeries.
His condition has left his future somewhat up in the air. He has been with Mesa for two years.
"My goal is to get back to full duty," he said. "The worst-case scenario is that I will have limited motion in my thumb and wrist."
Cervantes remains humble about the event, which sparked a response by about 100 officers from Tempe, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, and Scottsdale and Mesa fire departments.
"To be a police officer, you need to have thick skin," he said. "We all know this is a possibility when we get into this job."
Edited by Carrera Elite on June 21 2009,8:10 pm
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