‘There are not words’: Grateful officer back to thank lifesavers
Medical team glad to see Balcones Heights sergeant on road to recovery
Police officers are trained to do many things — console victims, control their emotions, act tough when needed — but nothing quite prepares them for the day they might have to thank the people who saved their lives.
Sgt. Joey Sepulveda of the Balcones Heights Police Department got that chance Wednesday as he was reunited with the medical team from Methodist Hospital | Texsan who stabilized Sepulveda after he was shot on Feb. 3 while handling a possible burglary call.
Gathered outside the emergency room entrance of the hospital for the media event were nurses in blue scrubs, a linebacker-sized surgeon, security personnel, the Balcones Heights mayor, the hospital’s CEO and the police chief, all awkwardly holding ice-cream-cone-shaped balloons as Sepulveda and his partner, patrolman Edgard Ortiz, arrived in an unmarked white vehicle with flashing red and blue lights.
“I cannot thank you enough,” Sepulveda, an 18-year veteran of the small department, said to Emily Garza, a registered nurse.
Chris Lewis, a critical care tech, and Darrell Steidley, the ICU director, hugged the officer like family, all wearing masks, of course. Someone laughed, “We’re just glad to see you walking, man.”
“There are not words to explain my gratitude,” Sepulveda said as he earnestly shook every hand.
“I’m just so happy for you and your family,” said Dr. Umar Khan. “We handle these kinds of cases all the time. It’s what we do, but this was special.”
At 422 acres, Balcones Heights is a small city with about 3,000 people bordered by Interstate 10, Loop 410 and Northwest San Antonio. Its police department has 18 officers, and its chief, John Jahanara, 47, said he thinks Sepulveda is only the second officer in the department’s history to have been shot while on duty.
“I was in my office just doing admin work. It was about 1:15 that afternoon,” recalled Jahanara, a former Bexar County sheriff ’s deputy. He knew he had two officers handling a call at the Sol Apartments, 6945 Interstate 10, but that was just chatter on the police radio.
“Then I hear a voice I know like my own mom’s. It’s garbled, sort of gurgling … ‘I’m shot.’
“I knew that was Joey. We are very close. He helped train me when I first came to the department. I grabbed my vest and raced out to get in my car.”
Sepulveda picked up the story. The call that got him to the apartment parking lot had advised there was a suspicious white
Ford pickup. “Might be connected to a burglary … I made contact with the driver. The driver's window was partially down … And then one shot, or more, came from the back seat.”
The sergeant lay on the ground, conscious, with wounds to his neck, shoulder and right elbow.
“I didn't even feel much pain at the moment. There was just so much adrenaline pumping,” said Sepulveda, having described it so many times that it now comes out in quick snippets.
Ortiz, who was not shot, had been with the Balcones Heights department just two years — he's from Laredo — as a trained paramedic, and he knew Sepulveda was bleeding badly. He put a tourniquet on him, didn't wait for an ambulance and got two onlookers to help lift his burly partner into his police vehicle.
A chorus of people, mainly medical, said Wednesday that Ortiz was the hero in this story.
Meanwhile, Jahanara rolled up at the apartments to find a “traumatized” apartment manager who mistakenly thought a shooter was up on the second floor.
“But where are my officers?” the chief yelled, ducking for cover. All he saw on the ground was a trail of blood, a Smith & Wesson police revolver and a pair of Oakley sunglasses he knew were Sepulveda's.
He didn't know that he had just missed Ortiz's vehicle rushing past him to take Sepulveda to Methodist Texsan. More police flooded the parking lot, alerted by Ortiz activating what's known as an E-tone GPS device that signals all police departments in the area that an officer is in danger.
In critical condition from loss of blood, Sepulveda was treated at Methodist Texsan for 32 minutes, according to staff. He then was transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center, where he says he spent about two weeks across two visits.
“All I remember is someone (at Methodist) saying we're gonna put you out right now, and then the next day I woke up” at Brooke Army, said Sepulveda, who was raised on the South Side and graduated from Holy Cross High School.
He is talking and walking fine, but still in rehab, and hopes to return to the force in June.
Two brothers — Wilfredo Montemayor, 28, and Sijifredo Montemayor, 30 — have been arrested and charged with attempted murder. They remain in the Bexar County Jail.