By Janet Kelley
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
LANCASTER, Pa. — More than three years ago, Lititz police Officer Jevon Miller was shot in the chest.
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That same day, Nov. 8, 2005, Miller’s assailant, Daniel Faust, was killed in a gunbattle with state troopers.
Miller spent a week in the hospital, completed months of physical therapy and was confined to light duty, educating children about drugs and fire prevention, before he finally returned in June 2006 to full-time work and his responsibilities as a police officer.
There was only one issue remaining - the civil lawsuit filed by his assailant’s mother accusing Miller and other law-enforcement officers of using “excessive and unjustified deadly force.”
The case against Lititz and Warwick Township police departments, plus Pennsylvania state police, was scheduled to go to trial next month in federal court in Philadelphia.
Earlier this week, officials announced that Faust’s mother, Sandra Faust, had dropped the lawsuit.
“That was the last lingering tie to the whole incident,” Miller said. “Everything was behind me, doctor-wise and everything. It was all in the past. That was the only thing left hanging on.
“None of us really wanted to go through that,” Miller said, especially him, having to remember in detail all the events surrounding his shooting.
Miller was trying to serve a warrant when Daniel Faust, 23, responded by shooting him in the upper chest, just beyond his bulletproof vest. Faust fled to Drumore Township, where he died after a confrontation with state police.
Meanwhile, Miller was rushed to the hospital. Officials said the wound was so serious and so close to his spine that the surgeon who operated on him chose not to remove the bullet.
“People still ask if I was the one who was shot, but I don’t dwell on it,” Miller said. The incident crosses his mind “now and then,” but Miller said usually it doesn’t come to mind “unless somebody asks.”
What he does remember is the kindness of the community, his family and the hospital staff members, who helped him and encouraged him in the recovery process.
“I’m still so thankful for all the support I’ve received over the past years,” especially from hospital personnel, Miller said.
“The biggest life lesson I learned through all that is don’t take anything for granted.”
What he wants to dwell on, Miller said, “is to be happy for everything that I have. I’m still here.’'
Miller, 27, said he and his closest friends have been Philadelphia Phillies fans for as long as he can remember.
“A big moment for my friends and me was to be around to experience their win,” Miller said of the Phillies’ World Series victory in October. “It meant a lot to me.’'
One of the best things to come out of his light-duty experience as the department’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) officer, Miller said, was meeting his future wife, Nicole Williams, a Warwick School District elementary school teacher.
“I was doing fire prevention with the kids and I met her during that,’' Miller said.
The couple is planning an August wedding.
Miller, who played ice hockey as a youth for the Lancaster Firebirds and for Warwick High School, has returned to coaching Warwick’s junior high school ice hockey team and plays on two men’s teams.
Every December, Miller plays ice hockey as part of an annual fundraising event to benefit families of Pennsylvania police officers who were killed in the line of duty.
“That is something that is really important to me now,’' Miller said.
Copyright 2009 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.