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Mo. officer badly injured in crash returns from rehab center

Sgt. Charles Lowe said Officer Gary Glasby, who suffered a traumatic brain injury, no longer is in a wheelchair

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Officer Gary Glasby suffered a traumatic brain injury while on patrol on March after his patrol car collided with a pickup.

Photo/St. Louis PD

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis police officer who was badly injured in a car crash in March returned to St. Louis on Wednesday from a rehabilitation center in Nebraska.

Officer Gary Glasby was injured while on patrol in St. Louis on March 17. His patrol car collided with a pickup while turning south on Broadway from Chambers Street, north of downtown.

Glasby was sent to a Colorado rehab facility, the same one where officers who have been shot in the line of duty often end up to recover from their injuries. He was later moved to a facility in Nebraska, and returned from there Wednesday.

He was given a police escort from the airport about 3:30 p.m. to the Central Patrol station on Jefferson Avenue, where he worked.

There, family, fellow officers and Acting Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole welcomed him home.

St. Louis police Sgt. Charles Lowe, who was Glasby’s sergeant, said Glasby is done with out-of-town rehab.

Lowe said Glasby was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and has had to relearn some basic functions.

“He’s getting better,” Lowe said. “He’s still making strides.”

Lowe said Glasby no longer is in a wheelchair.

“He can use a walker unassisted,” Lowe said. “His voice is a little raspy, but he can speak. He’s very cognizant of what is going on.”

Lowe said it’s not clear whether Glasby will return as a police officer.

“The doctors won’t say if he can come back to work or not,” Lowe said. “Either way, it will be a long way to getting back to a new normal for him.”

©2017 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch