By The Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) -- A police officer injured at the start of a deadly standoff said he longs to return to the streets.
A bullet took a tennis ball-sized chunk out of Dallas police Sgt. Michael Flusche’s left bicep in the early morning hours of Nov. 12. Shotgun pellets tore 13 holes in his right arm, leaving his hand numb.
But Flusche said he and his fellow officers didn’t hesitate when they were called to an apartment where Francisco Fuentes had killed two men and was holding three children and their mother hostage. Four children who had escaped from the apartment gave police a chilling message, he said.
“He had said this to the kids, that he was going to take them to heaven with him,” Flusche told The Dallas Morning News for a Wednesday story.
When they heard choking, gurgling noises, “we thought he was making good on that promise,” he said. “We could either sit back and listen or do something about it.”
After Officer Edward Coffey kicked in the bedroom door, Flusche was the first to attempt to enter.
“A woman screamed, and I could see a couple of little heads on the other side of the room,” said Flusche, who is the first officer to speak publicly about the ordeal. “I got my gun and flashlight inside the door when he started shooting. I never saw him.”
The shotgun blasts spun the sergeant. He lost his pistol. Fuentes kept firing, striking Coffey and Senior Cpl. Michael Patino.
“I think I was screaming, ‘I’m shot!”’ Flusche said. “It was pretty much survival mode. There was blood everywhere, and I realized that it was coming from me. The fight-or-flight kicked in, and there was no fight left in me. The guys told me I pushed them out. We ran for the ambulance.”
While doctors worked on the officers at a hospital, the standoff stretched to nearly nine hours. Negotiators eventually brokered the release of Fuentes’ three daughters and their mother. Investigators say the incident was fueled by Fuentes’ anger over a custody dispute with the woman.
SWAT officers stormed the room, and Fuentes, 32, died in the resulting gunbattle. In the confusion, Officer Douglas Brady was hit by friendly fire. None of the officers’ injuries were life-threatening.
Flusche said he is slowly recovering, though the inactivity is starting to wear on him.
“I’ve been a policeman for 22 years. I worked in an office for five years. It drove me nuts,” Flusche said. “I like working the streets. You can’t let one incident knock you down.”