Double-amputee Marine is now a cop
Ferreira lost his legs below the knee in a landmine blast in Afghanistan in 2011
The wounded warrior is now a cop — and he’ll be walking the beat on titanium legs.
Matias Ferreira, a former US Marine Corps lance corporal who lost his legs below the knee when he stepped on a hidden explosive in Afghanistan in 2011, is joining a suburban New York police department.
The 28-year-old graduated on Friday from the Suffolk County Police Academy on Long Island following 29 weeks of training.
The six-foot-one-inch, 98kg rookie passed all the physical training and other requirements just like any other recruit, including running 2.4km in around 11 minutes. He begins patrols this week, a department spokesman said.
“I just really want to be able to help people,” said Ferreira, who immigrated to the US from Uruguay as a child. “I want to be involved in the community, and the police department definitely allows you to do that.”
Ferreira was on patrol in Afghanistan on January 21, 2011, when he jumped off a roof in a compound suspected of being a Taliban outpost.
“As soon as I landed I knew something was wrong because it was like a movie almost. I heard a noise and everything went black,” he said. A bomb had gone off beneath his legs, amputating both below the knees. “I just saw blood throughout my pants.”
He was evacuated to a local hospital. Within days, he was back in the US being treated for his injuries. Three months later he was wearing prosthetic legs.
“I was up and walking in prosthetics and really just starting my new life,” he said.
He lives by the motto that “life without limbs is limitless.”