Suffers some paralysis after being shot in neck
SAN DIEGO -- Doctors stabilized the condition of a 37-year-old police officer and former San Diego Padres player who was wounded in the neck in a deadly gun battle, hospital officials said Friday.
Officer Dan Walters, who played two seasons with the Padres in the early 1990s, was shot in the neck as he got out of his patrol car to help another officer. He remained in critical condition and is suffering from some paralysis at UCSD Medical Center, according to a spokesman from the San Diego Police Department. Doctors said that Walters has bone and bullet fragments embedded in the wound, but they are waiting for swelling to go down so they can examine the damage more closely.
The bullet shattered on impact and the 37-year-old San Diego native was paralyzed from the neck down with bullet and bone fragments lodged in his spinal cord, police Lt. Jim Duncan said Thursday. He remained conscious.
Shots rang out about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday as Walters drove his patrol car into the middle of a tense confrontation between the unidentified gunman and another officer.
Moments earlier, Officer Henry Ingram had stopped to investigate a pickup truck in the street with the door open. When Ingram approached the pickup, police said the driver of the truck pulled out a revolver and threatened to kill him. Ingram, 39, a 14-year veteran of the force, dived for cover just as Walters’ passing patrol car arrived.
After the suspect shot Walters, his partner, Aaron Hildreth, shot and killed the suspect. Hildreth, 24, had been on the force less than a year.
During the chaos of the shootout, a passing car accidentally rolled onto Walters, who was being treated at UC, San Diego Medical Center.
Doctors say it’s too early to tell whether Walters will ever walk again. They are waiting for swelling to subside before attempting surgery, Duncan said.
“There’s a lot of hope involved that the swelling could be the cause of the paralysis,” Duncan said.
Walters previously underwent spinal surgery in 1996 when he severely injured his back while diving for a ball during spring training in Arizona. The surgery convinced him his 13-year baseball career was over and prompted him to enter the police academy.
“I had been playing a game for a living,” he told The San Diego Union-Tribune for a 1999 profile. “I wanted a job with responsibility.”
Walters was drafted by the Houston Astros in 1984 after graduating Santana High School in Santee. He bounced around the minor leagues for several years before he played 84 games for the Padres in the 1992 and 1993 seasons.
San Diego police say police shot eight people this year, five of whom were killed. Last year, there were 19 officer-involved shootings, six of them fatal.
Source: AP; nbcsandiego.com