When Death Awaits | Episode #8 | Danny Reyes' Shooting

In this episode 8, we have a special guest joining us: Deputy Sheriff Danny Reyes who recounts a life-threatening situation while on patrol in East Los Angeles with his trainee partner. Deputy Reyes emphasizes the importance of physical fitness and recalls how he always prioritized staying in shape throughout his career, and one day, it paid off.
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When Death Awaits (WDA):
When Death Awaits (WDA) is a true crime series about former LA County Sheriffs Homicide Detective Rich Ramirez, also referred to as "Uncle Rich". With over 32 years of experience in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and 17 years as a homicide detective, Uncle Rich takes listeners on a journey through some of the most chilling and tragic stories of our time, examining the human experience behind the headlines and exploring the lives of both victims and perpetrators.

With thousands of case files, Detective Ramirez opens up about his most haunting and complex cases, sharing his insights and personal experiences in each episode, offering a unique perspective into the world of law enforcement and crime investigation.

WDA is a must-listen for true crime enthusiasts and anyone interested in understanding the complexities of crime investigation, law enforcement, and the dark side of human nature. Subscribe now. Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. #truecrime #homicide #detective #insane #murder

Transcript

this involves one of the most violent Deputy involved shootings that I investigated with one police officer shot and another one fighting for his life I worked this area I'm familiar with this area today this particular Deputy who survived this shooting will be here to give his perspective on what transpired that day foreign

welcome to uh when death awaits episode 8. today we have a special guest with us just like we did last week new guy uh someone who goes way back with Uncle Rich it's a story that does involve death but also involves someone escaping death um it's it's crazy uh I don't want to give too much away off the top but I'm gonna allow Uncle Rich to uh introduce our special guest yeah well I am honored and privileged just to introduce um which I consider a good friend uh Deputy Danny Reyes who I worked with at East L.A Sheriff's station and while I was at homicide I ended up having to investigate a shooting that he was involved in and I will just say this much guys I've been I've been in a couple of shootings myself but more than that um I've also investigated a number of shootings both as a gang investigator and as a homicide investigator and I will just say without a doubt no argument that Deputy Danny Reyes is shooting is probably one of the most horrific survival stories that I have ever encountered and I know I got I am honored and privileged as I mentioned just to have Danny here to basically share a story to the extent guys I had a I was teaching at the Academy I was sort of a collateral Duty that I volunteered for and as Danny is well aware I made it a point to bring him with me in my eight hour course just to relate that story to those folks that were coming into the business because this could potentially happen to anybody but more than that I think the fact is that it uh it happened and it resulted in Danny's partner being shot we could go into that in terms of the issues fortunately he survived Muhammad Ahmed and that was Danny's trainee Annie is an accomplished deputy sheriff worked as a training officer at East L.A Sheriff's Station was well respected um was in fact considered probably one of the more accomplished training officers there as a result he was continually receiving trainees so that they could be orientated in his way of doing it and in his way of of of thinking in terms of positive police relations with the community I again I would just say that so I'll start off with that Blaine the foundation Omar Chris but that being said hopefully we'll be able to get to some of the other elements of this case up to it including Danny uh if you don't mind me sharing that audio of him um uh requesting assistance which even that interestingly enough became problematic by way of what happened I know we have video now of shootings and the like but this particular shooting was actually captured by Webb a very blurry um video that was videotaping the street from the from this corner um Mom and Pop market right there on in East L.A is that when this thing transpired so we actually see uh Danny pulling the vehicle over okay stand correct didn't even pull the vehicle but we'll talk about that in a minute then you can tell us your version of what happened there but let me just give you some a background investigation so um I get a call to respond to that location um in January it was raining um this is it this is January in 2011. yes and so it's raining it's cloudy now it's raining cloudy cloudy and rainy and I get there and needless pretty much the scene had been contained you have to keep in mind when we involve and again I've been in a in an uh investigating a number of these cases up to including police officers being shot and killed unfortunately I have had been part of those as well but in many instances I'll get there and the Personnel that are involved in this are not going to be at the same so all I have is a crime scene to examine I was the lead investigator on this case and keep in mind anytime a police officer is shot and I'm sure this spans uh the United States of America in terms of how this goes down but we have to create a command post and we did that a couple blocks away up at our uh uh that are Fleet Management and we have all our vehicles repaired and when I arrived there first there was probably in excess of about 300 police officers ready willing

and able to find the person who committed this crime

and I've seen it on a number of occasions where people from everywhere just respond because they know

that somebody's been hurt so that said I'm just letting you guys know I just want to lay that foundation so I get there having been involved in these in the past I know that I'm talking about homicide investigators our energy is very high we want to make sure we solve this I know that I've seen that time again I have not been party to that because I don't want to immerse myself in more issues but I would just say this I told my partner who was relatively new to homicidal I say Hey listen hold on let's let everybody start to vent and then we'll engage and that's exactly what I did and I drove over to the crime scene from that location but here's an interesting thing first thing that happened was we called the District Attorney's office letting them know that a deputy from East LA had been shot and there was an attempt murder on another one and a suspect had been shot at that point we understood that the suspect had been shot but the first thing this is the interesting part about this the first thing is I got on the phone with the DA's office was what's the name of the suspect because they're concerned of the political um repercussions that are associated with a guy who later I learned had been convicted 18 times for felony offenses I'm like jeez this guy this guy at but I digress I am not going to go into the politics associated with people being incarcerated that's and uh for us to talk another topic for another day that's it I get there and um I learned that Danny and um Ahmed were over at the um um USC Medical Center and so was our suspect and that said I ended up um processing the scene and again as a lead investigator I designate people to work where they're supposed to go whether it be the crime scene interviewing Witnesses and so forth and so on and then at that point I responded to USC Medical Center I did know interestingly enough that there was a female that was apparently involved and she was being detained at the sheriff station and I spoke to her at length shortly after went over to the medical center and one of the things that we do as a police officer as Quantum investigators investigating these cases things have changed a little bit fundamentally but um bottom line is we make it a point to talk to the police officers or deputies that are involved in this case we postponed the interview with Danny primarily because of the the traumatic experience that we had been briefed on which was of course he had encountered a suspect and we'll go into more details about that and ultimately the shots were fired and his partner had been shot so let me just give you a little backdrop and then I'll let Danny take it over and if you have any guys have any questions feel free I'm more than happy to share them with you so after I make sure that everything's settled over at USC Medical Center I go over to East Valley Station I talk to this young woman um she in fact is um slightly overweight and the only reason I mentioned that is because she also had a brace on her leg on her left leg and that's interesting because that's pretty much what caused to a large extent the issues that ultimately unfolded as a result of Danny and his partner coming in contact with them so I talked to her she said she worked for Social Security she actually had graduated college and that she was um uh had met a young man who came in to the Social Security office and happened to be Nestor Taurus in this case our suspect and they got into a conversation Nestor had invited her to um to go out and Nestor needless to say just haven't just gotten out from prison didn't have a car so she was willing to pick him up and they had known each other for a few days been on the phone this is her story to me and then at one point he decides he's or she's got she decides she's going to pick him up in East LA and she drives over and Picks Them Up

um um she didn't find out until after that the Nestor had told her let me take me to my sister's house or apparently he had a conversation with his sister and then at that point they drive now they want to go get something to eat she's very happy I mean she's finally has some level of a relationship with honey and her brace starts to loosen so she has to pull over and at that point she's now bracing herself and she had been in conversation with this uh with Nestor for no on a number of occasions but suddenly he says what the [ __ ] you stopping for let's leave he's insisting on leaving and she's like caught off guard she's like what is this what are you what are you talking about I'm trying to fix my brace but nestor's insistent on moving away and at that point that's where Danny arrives and contacts Nestor and this young lady who's in the driver's seat and I'll let you take it away from there Danny that's that's a beautiful setup sorry this is Umar jumping in Danny I want to keep the listeners a little more suspenseful but that was a beautiful build up to where uh the suspect and his girlfriend or partner at the time uh were love to hear now from Danny tell us about how your day started and how did you join the scene well from what I remember that day um I went I went to the gym and as a routine I was working out five times a week and I realized you know throughout my whole career 32 years with the sheriff's department I knew working out was very vital especially being out on patrol you know it could be a matter of life and death of staying in shape in this case it was the mistake I made that morning was and you know I had a power drink that morning shake when to go work out and routinely I would eat before going to work but I was running short on time I ended up going to work on an empty stomach now if you don't mind me interrupted but how old were you at that time oh I think I was 40 40 40 years old we've aged pretty well you look pretty you look 40 now I'm retired now 55 and retired so um so I imagine at 40 years old not having the meal and yeah it's a little bit tougher it is it is um and I felt it that day because uh my anticipation was you know to go grab a bite as soon as we logged on to our computers um but as soon as we logged on being a training officer and one of the few training cars out there you know they're the first ones to get the calls for service so me being a trained officer you know I didn't like to put calls on hold so I went out and started handling these calls and by the time I knew it it was already 7 P.M and the last time I had something in my stomach was probably eight o'clock in the morning

the only thing I had was a shake so I felt it and it was at that point I told Deputy my training that you know I clearly remember time you know what I can't focus I can't concentrate my stomach's making all kinds of noises I go I need to put something in my stomach because I can't work like this and and so that was at that point I decided I was going to drive to the station I did bring food that my wife had prepared for me to eat later in the evening so I decided to drive to the station and that's where I came across the suspect and his female friend and after watching the video as soon as they pulled around the corner they stopped your vehicle within seconds I was right right behind them and and where was this in L.A this was in East LA in a area of City Terrace the streets were floral and branic

the reason that it caught my attention was the fact that where they were stopped was at a Red Zone it was actually a bus stop let's give you a little bit of background that bus stop we had a murder probably about two years prior at that bus stop some kid on the bike rode up to some gang member asking where he was from gave the wrong answer ends up shooting me a killing him and there's also a house just adjacent to the bus stop which everybody you know sold drugs so when I came behind this vehicle first thing I thought was okay they're probably there to score some drugs so me being a training officer first thing that crossed my mind was at that time I hadn't made an arrest for that day so I'd figure hey maybe they're score some drugs that'll be a quick arrest why go eat the training can process whoever whoever we arrest so I come across a vehicle and a video you could see me pulling behind it and then pulling to the side of it because I wasn't sure whether I wanted to stop him that because I was hungry so it was whether do I go eat or do I make a quick rest so I pull up a sidewalk I wanted to see who was inside the vehicle I know I knew I had a violation so at one point I was just I told the trainee when I pulled alongside the vehicle I told the trainee you know find out what what you know why are they stopped there now and he's on the passenger side of the vehicle on the passenger side talking to the female driver yeah almost like double part yeah double part Spacey hey just Tom they can't stop here keep the car moving you know if you know we didn't see anything wrong with him but as soon as we pulled alongside the vehicle I told my train he started talking to her you know just kind of get a feel of who she is and you're sorry to interrupt but your trainee like how how green is he how he was been on the department for I believe four years he was on his third week third or fourth week on training so he's fairly new on patrol side so as he's talking to the female um I remember her mentioning that you know they pulled over because her brace you wanted to fix her brace and so as the train he's talking to her I couldn't really see if anybody else was in the vehicle so I pulled up a little bit and I noticed there was a male passenger and when I saw the male passenger I backed up and I told the Train Hey keep talking I want to see if I could see who this guy is so as I'm staring at him the guy's looking straight ahead and he's actually actually slouching in his chair so he's not making any eye contact he's in the front seat he's in the front passenger seat so obviously he's trying to avoid any type of eye contact which is a red flag yeah so I told the trainee get out of the car stop talking girl I'm gonna go contact this person so I get out of the car I'll walk towards the passenger side and the first thing I notice is that he's holding onto the soda can Dr Pepper soda can and as I'm talking to him I recognized him he was a parolee and somebody who I believe had arrested him probably about 10 years prior and but he looked a lot different now now you recognized him yeah he had long hair he was wearing a beanie he looked different he's a lot heavier his nickname was husky husky from the lot so and I remember most of those games I worked in that area almost my entire career at East all day 20 something years so you get pretty intimate with the neighborhood you know that you knew that house that sold drugs you probably knew the folks that lived there I've arrested a few people from there I've arrested a lot of a lot of the game members knew me in that area and so this guy hadn't seen him you know obviously he was in prison I think the last prison time he did was seven years for shooting at somebody and so as I'm talking to him I knew I was going to happen he was on Parole I was going to have him sit by the vehicle so you have to put the soda can down so when he puts a soda can down on the floorboard it starts spilling so I'm waiting for him to say oh [ __ ] you know I didn't pick it up there was no reaction and I thought to myself there's something definitely up with this guy any normal person would have picked it it was a nice clean car and I was waiting for him to pick up the soda can but he let it spill I'm like okay so immediately I opened up the door and as soon as I opened up the door he lunges up gets me off balance pushes me back and I think one of the reasons why he was able to do that was because I was working on an empty stomach I didn't have any energy and you know I kicked myself in the butt for letting myself get to that but sometimes as police officers deputies you don't have the time to go out there and grab a bite you're so busy those eight hours there's times where deputies don't even get a chance to eat because they're so busy handling their calls um but a lot of times it is you know sometimes you have to make that time but as a trained officer that's your job you go out there to to be proactive and try to take people to jail handle your calls and to teach or train you something yeah it's something we all deal with with all of our work or although you know it's put your head down have something to eat you know it probably affects how you work you firsthand you know you've got a little bit more serious of a job so you're feeling it yeah sometimes you can buy some food and actually you know you're tossing it out because you got a hot call you got to leave you know and you might be stuck on that next call for eight ten hours to the next morning wow you know it could be a murder scene and you're stuck yeah and if you didn't get something to eat before that guess what you might not get to eat till the next day yeah it happens so he shoves you back he shows you back and he takes soft running and in the back of my mind I actually had a parole lead earlier in that shift run for me and he got away earlier in that year earlier early in that shift I had I had a guy yeah I had a guy who I who I'd been looking for he was a prolly at large and from a different gang up in the hills he saw us took off running um I actually yelled at my training because he took off running before me and I lost him for a couple seconds and I told him you don't ever lose sight so I shoot him out and so later on that evening um uh when this guy tried running for me in back of my mind so I'm not letting a second guy get away from him yeah so I go I grab him from the back and I tuck him to the ground and at the time it was it was a cool cool winter it was while January it was it was a cool night and I could say to start a drizzling later at night but at the time it was windy it was cool and the guy was wearing a beanie with a big big uh I think it was a corduroy jacket this guy how big is this I was going to say he was five ten 250 pounds okay a big guy yeah we at the time I was weighing about a about 170. I'm five six yeah I was waiting about 170. and one thing that I did do at that time was I Incorporated cardio workouts which I was not a big Runner I wasn't big with cardio I was big into working out the weights most of my career was weight training but hardly any cardio a lot of us we rather bulk up you know you get your cardio chasing parolee yeah yeah so I I remember probably about two months prior to that you know in East LA the area and City Terrace a lot of Hills I remember going up steps one day on a call when I got to the top of the steps of this one home I remember Breathing heavily I like I felt I knew I was out of shape I said from that time on I said you know what I need to start doing some cardio workouts because if I'm trying to catch my breath walking up these steps to this house what's going to happen if I'm involved in a fight with somebody how am I going to stay in the fight if I'm going to get winded so I started working out doing more cardio and that was like I said a couple months before this incident so when we're on the ground um going back to to the incident and I'm resting with this guy on the ground um I had a hard time controlling him because of the jack in because of his size and some on the ground I'm looking up to see where my trainees at and I found out later on he was still because he was still new he was still seated in the patrol car and what he was actually doing was he had the female's driver's license and he was running her on the computer and at the time which I understand was you know the as a trainee because it happened to me I got slapped behind the head when for my training officer because I did the same thing and he said you need to look up look up and be aware of your surroundings even when you're on a computer go get Tunnel Vision on the computer because you're going to get caught with your head down and not realizing somebody can come up and walk walk up on you while you're sitting patrol car so I remember that well that's why I understand what the trainee did you know being fairly new he was stuck in that computer until he looked up and he realized I was on the ground fighting with this guy so in the corner of my eye I see him running towards me in the back of my head I'm thinking okay once he gets here we'll control this guy handcuff and find out why he's running you know is he a probably at large or is he got warrants or what or whatever so the last thing I remember was the trainee running up and now all three of us are in a fight we're on the ground and as we're fighting on the ground I heard what sounded like a firecracker so you know the times you hear in some areas you can hear firecrackers you hear gunshots sometimes it's hard to tell the difference yeah and this time and I I know what gunshots Sonic from being into range all the time but this isn't Sonic again shot sound like a firecracker when I heard it I jumped up to my feet the suspect was standing in front of me with his back towards me Deputy Ahmed was on the ground in front of him so now I'm thinking my partner was just shot as soon as that thought came across my mind the suspect turns around the next you know he's got a black handgun pointed directly towards me we're probably probably a foot away from each other so I'm looking down the barrel of a gun pointed towards my face and as I'm staring at it my first reaction was grab that gun take it away from him because I know I didn't have enough time to go down to get my gun so my immediate reaction was to grab the gun with both hands so I was able to grab both the gun with both my hands and now we're chugging over the gun we're fighting over the gun and his hand on the trigger like what's going on like I have no idea his he's holding on to the gun I don't know why the gun's not going off you know um I don't know if it's because I'm hiding I'm holding on to the slides so tight that you know in order to fire this line needs to retract but I don't know if it's from holding it so tight that I wasn't allowing him to pull the trigger but for some reason he wasn't firing the weapon I mean what's going through your head in this moment I mean like you see your officer your your per your trainee on the ground this guy who's been acting weird like he's dropping soda cans and not reacting and then all of a sudden like you hear a firecracker and you're kind of confused like I mean this probably is going on in slow motion but probably all happening within seconds everything was going slow motion at one point I thought this wasn't really happening because my mind because of the lack of food in my system I thought my head was playing tricks you know I thought my mind was I I throughout my whole career I always ran scenarios in my head the what ifs what if you're involved in a fight for your life how are you going to react so mentally I always prepare myself with these scenarios you know I don't know very other deputies I'm sure they do I used to go to sleep every night thinking of think different scenarios that's probably why I suffer from TMJ from grinding my teeth for so many years because I used to think about these things because we're not eating enough food but uh I uh I remember as I'm holding on to that gun everything just starts going in slow motion every scenario that I've gone through at night I always came out on top I always won I survived and in this case I felt I was losing it and it I didn't like the feeling so at one point I actually thought to myself if I just let go of this gun maybe the scenario is going to end and you'll get accepted yourself like exception I wanted I wanted to believe it wasn't happening so I felt okay if I just let go then the scenario is going to stop and I'll start all over again so as I'm thinking about that um I started hearing voices in my head I started hearing my my kids

I started hearing my my wife

I started hearing the words don't give up fight back if you don't fight back this guy's gonna kill you

sorry I was every time I think about that it strikes yeah um so as I'm hearing their voices I can see their faces kind of like circling around me like hovering over me and as if they're you know telling me you know don't give up don't you need to fight back and I tell the story uh to the recruits because when I was in the academy there was a lecture on officer survival and one of the instructors they showed us a video of the world survived video it was about two deputies that were shot you know over in Firestone area and they fought back and they survived but they showed in the they did a reenactment of these deputies who are being pretty much slaughtered killed they're about to be killed and they end up thinking about their families and I remember the same thing happened to me I started thinking about my family and so I I got angry the thought of not being there and that anger turned into this rage and I tell people you know the mind is a powerful thing mind over matter because I had zero energy to keep fighting with this guy but the thought of him killing me and possibly have killed my partner already gave me this rage adrenaline that I just told myself I told myself I'm not gonna let this guy kill me and with that said with all the energy that I had I decided to in my mind I was going to take this gun away from this guy no matter what and I was going to fight back you know till the end so with that said I pulled on the gun and when I pulled on his gun I was able to turn him 180 degrees I pushed them against a fence uh the house that was along the sidewalk had like I think a two or three foot fence I had them pinned up against the fence and when I had them pinned up against the fence I still had the gun pointed towards me but it wasn't the gun wasn't going off

he still had the gun in his hand pointed towards me I still had both my hands on the gun but it wasn't firing it was that point I I knew that I had to get my gun out and so I decided that I was going to let go with one hand reach for my gun and come out shooting and first thing I did is was I turned the gun away from me and as soon as I turned away simultaneously I simultaneously I went down for my gun and as soon as I let go he fired two rounds Two Shots went out and they went in a Northerly Direction which I found out the ridge they hit a cart that was parked um further up the street but at the same time I was able to go get my gun out come up put it towards his mouth and I shot twice after the second shot I knew that you know he was no longer with us because his body just went limp I actually saw his gun fall out of his hand into the ground when I looked down you know I wanted to make sure that he was neutralized and when I looked down at his gun I noticed that the slide was back and I thought either he ran out of rounds yeah no more bullets in the gun or something happened again so I backed off of him and when I had him pinned up against the fence he actually got stuck on the fence somehow so he was still standing up after I shot him wow he was standing and he stood there like a scarecrow stuck along the fence I didn't get a chance to see where I shot him because he had long his hair was in ponytail and a beanie at the time of our contact after the fight or during the fight his beanie fell off and after I shot him his long hair was covering his face so I never actually got a chance to see his face at the time so when I looked down I saw his gun on the ground I turned around and on the sidewalk I saw a second gun he had two guns on him and that's where I saw Deputy Med by that time dip in the mid was I believe standing in front of the patrol car and I knew he was in shock because he was walking in circles just holding his face and the first thing he said was uh I'm sorry sir I'm like well there's nothing to be sorry about I said look I'm gonna get you some help you're standing you're walking you're talking you're going to be fine I'm gonna get you some help so as I'm telling him this the neighbors that live in a drug house because they've known me for so many years yeah I've always had a good rapport with them you know I even though I've arrested or family members some of them for drugs we always had a good report I always had a good relationship with them I would drive by their house I would wave high to them they'd wave high and sometimes I talk to their kids you know and uh so when they realized I was winning the shooting they actually saw that admitted they saw the whole they were hiding because they heard the gunshots yeah and so they're hiding in their yard and I remember one of them came running out with towels and he started playing pressure on my trainees face her training was like who the hell is this guy you know I said no that's fine you know just and they said hey I would take care of them these are drug dealers taken care of but that's what I tell you zapedes is that you gotta treat people in the community with respect because there's gonna be a time and place where they might be that person that's going to call 911 for you or they might be that person that just locked the doors and closed the windows and not get involved in this case because I had a good relationship with that family they came out and helped us so as they're helping him you know I get on my radio and in my mind I put everything out that I'm supposed to on the radio and the way I train myself because I would practice doing that too but I don't hear anybody coming back on the radio so I'm looking at my radio and I see all the lights blinking so I'm thinking shoot now I got the toggles will probably moved during the fight as soon as I'm there trying to play these were fairly new radios so as I'm trying to reconnect to our station at subscript I ran into my police my car patrol car and I got on the radio that's already programmed in there and I and so that was a little delay there because of the radio and somebody did say I found out later on that it did go up to like a different station but could never find out exactly let's hear that real quick if that's okay we've got the actual audio Yeah so I went to our Sheriff's Communications and was able to procure a copy of the audio

2011 at 7 him

21.

21 code 121.

it's only 21 what is your status 21.

Tuesday 1 11 2011 at 7 15 p.m that is your location of 21 advised you still a 21-year location 21. we're fighting this whole time I'm trying to get underrated but because he's fighting with me

you can send me a location or your Deputy down

foreign

um

give them you need rescue for both a deputy and a suspect and is it a what types of injuries please

I do have a GSD I have several units responding in cm units for response

it is 902r 21 Santa is responding do you have any outstanding suspects 21.

and Floral

and and confirming against all your death you do have a deputy that has been shot somebody else that's affirmative just want to stop there Danny um if you remember correctly Fargo got there and that you um units weren't able to come up on you or how did that work well there was a deputy that was pretty much took the lead as far as getting the fire department there so what he did is he set up one street so all the fire department can gain access easily but it turned out the fire department was on a call on the opposite side of the area where all and they had to come in through where all the patrol cars had piled up so there was a delay with them coming in because of the fact that that they came in and the fire department was just right up the street off of Eastern they're like maybe less than a minute away oh wow and talking to one of the uh the guys that works for that station he told me because I remember we were on a call with a elderly female up in the hill and we got the call we were told we were tied up until they told us it was a deputy that was shot because they were going to actually send the fire department from Commerce to come and when they heard it was Deputy that that was shot then they said okay we're going to respond but then they got tied up because all the patrol units were yeah so this is a lot of little things that just kind of if anything go wrong it was going wrong you know um yeah it was uh it was a lot of a lot of we learned a lot that night you know as far as communication with fire department you know um it's not always like how you're envisioning in your dreams right like there's a it's a one of Mike Tyson said there's always a plan until you get punched in the face yeah um so what what uh if we can wrap it up on the on just like uh all the players that are involved I would love to know about your trainee uh how did he do after you called it in and then the woman in the car and then the suspect themselves if your mind was walking us through yeah and then I guess also your own recovery yeah I uh after I put out the radar traffic and the help came I went and I checked on the trainee and he was I had him sitting on the on the push bar of the patrol car with the towel over his face and he was he he was talking he was fine the paramedics came he started treating him they transported him to the station and I remember my my thigh of my leg was was hurting and so people were like did you get shot no I didn't get shot but for some reason my thigh was hurting a lot like a charlie horse and what I remember was when when I was fighting with this individual and I kept meeting him in the gut and I realized by me Nina in the gut was probably when the gun the second gun that he had was in his waistband and I was probably hitting the gun as I was Nina and so the gun must have fallen out during a fight and that's the only reason I think that my side was hurting so much because I kept hitting his second gun which was a it was actually a stolen gun a police officer's gun I believe from Arizona yes it was a stolen uh uh revolver that he had so he was carried two guns on him and I remember

when I went back to patrol I took a year off to not only get physically uh prepared but mentally prepared to go back in the field and I went back a year later I went back to training I went back to the same area um I remember when I first got back I asked me who do you want to work with right now I said let me work with one of my former trainees who I felt comfortable with first traffic stop I did on some gang members I pulled out the driver I think I searched some like four or five different times I caught myself and I asked my partner hey did you notice something different but the way I was acting was yeah you seriously got like five times you know I know I realized that I go okay I just gotta take some time get back in and these guys were they all knew me and they're like hey Reyes we heard what happened at the time my name wasn't me public because you know after a year I prior to your your name's not on public when you've all been shooting and so they're like hey we heard about what happened and that's for your safety right yeah yeah so they're like we heard what happened like what are you talking about yeah we heard you took husky out and I go really where'd you hear that from well just neighborhood and they're like well that's the good thing you did because this guy was crazy he was walking around in a rival gang neighborhoods with both guns on his hand he was sooner or later he was going to kill one of us we know that but luckily you've got to him before he got to one of us and I just kind of shrugged it out oh okay but uh yeah that was I you know I took a year off like I said to uh to prepare myself mentally um I knew I had to get over that hump of the what could have happened and that was the hardest part it was getting over what could have happened instead of thinking of what could have happened what did happen I survived Muhammad survived the other person did it and that's what Muhammad's damage was he had gotten shot he got shot in the cheek um it went through his nasal passage it went underneath his his nose and it lodged on his opposite side of his face I could actually see some of the bullet protruding from his cheek he was able to talk at the time um he had his jaw wired shut and he ended up losing one of his eyes because he had some nerve damage so he had to get a prosthetic and I remember talking to the doctor over at uh and I wanted to talk to touch on that real quick Danny as well when you guys went to the hospital but I remember talking to the doctor about ahmed's eye and he said that uh if they kept the eye that had been injured there was prospect that it could infect the eye that's still good and he could have ultimately become completely blind so here obviously I may have opted for to remove the eye and he now is but he's still interestingly enough and this is not the first time we've had deputies that have lost an eye and still continue to work for the department but real quick Danny going back to the hospital you guys were transported to hospital you're in the ER and tell us what happened there so I'm in my own room in the ER getting checked out and the next you know I see them bringing in a gurney and all I saw was a body and the first thought I that crossed my mind was it was Deputy I'm in

and I'm thinking to myself wait I have been told that he's going to be okay it was you know it's not life-threatening but then I see them doing um I mean it's a pretty big guy and the guy I saw in a gurney was a pretty big guy and thinking not thinking that they're going to bring the suspect where where I'm at I see them doing CPR on this guy and um I guess he still had a post at the time they brought him in so they're working on them and so they actually put him right next to me in the room you know there's a disappearing that was covering and I could see anything I'm like I I literally broke down thinking that it was Muhammad oh man yeah it was crazy they rushed me out they put me in a different room and they came back they said no that wasn't that wasn't a man that was the suspect like yeah so the suspect still had a pulse that's what I was told and you had shot him twice in where where were the bullets in his mouth and apparently he went down hit a spinal cord but from what I understand is is uh the chief responded to the location where where it happened of the fire department and because the way he was standing on the fence they don't want to expose that to the public so they decided to put him in a transport yeah yeah and then did they find anything on the suspect or anything interesting in his State I mean the fact that he was still breathing or almost he had a pulse I don't you know that's that's I just I remember you said he was acting strange right like the the Dr Pepper can he he it turns out from the from the toxology report that he did have traces of PCP math Coke marijuana alcohol all in the system yeah I attended that uh that autopsy interestingly enough and one of the injuries and if you look at it from a forensic standpoint the contact wound was very close proximity to his mouth so it's actually hit is the left side of his lower lip and then went into the area so if I'm looking at the autopsies and you can see actual stippling around the the the lip area which reflects that the gun was in very close proximity when Danny actually fired an attempt to stop this guy from attacking them and you could see that his hair is still long and that the generally the coroner's office if they have an issue with any other aspects they'll sometimes remove your hair but in this case Aiden so if you look at it from a close-up standpoint they did in fact have a very uh the bullet was in fact a very close proximity to his mouth when Danny fired that shot so uh that being said though um one of the things that came to light out of all of this and based on did you have any other questions somewhere I have one more but I want you to I can finish it off but I want you to to ask what you were asking about to ask no that just that's all I was going to say just that go ahead yeah well I mean firstly I just wanted to thank you for joining and sharing this with us it's it's I'm sure a harrowing experience a humbling experience one that you've now seemed have used to educate a lot of others on how to handle a scenario and what it's like to go through that I know you have received a tremendous number of accolades from uh the community and the department for your experience so you know again that's a just a congratulations to you it's a weird thing to say congratulations for like saving your own life but like it really is a remarkable feat the last question I had is what did you eat after they actually from I remember they brought me Pollo Loco but I didn't even eat it I was it was like I think two three o'clock in the morning and they finally said you can go home thank God it you know I didn't have to get interviewed that night because uh you know I I call my wife you know she was gonna she had just picked up my stepdaughters earlier and uh and I told her you know before you watch the news I was involved in shooting I'm okay you know she's like I'm gonna go with I could not just stay there because I'm going to be here for a while yeah they did bring me food but I was in any mood to eat I just wanted to get home and go to sleep can I just say one more thing along those lines Omar yeah uh with regards to the accolades um this was a first in terms of what I have seen in law enforcement and that was that on top of all of the other congratulatory uh experiences that Danny um had one of the things that was a tremendous honor and I'm again I have to go full circle in terms of what I started from is that he actually received the Congressional Medal of Honor incredible yeah and that is one very rare experience for a law enforcement officer to receive D you didn't bring it with you

I went out and uh I had an encasement done and I had a couple medals put in there we would love to see uh pictures of that later you can send them over to us we'd love to I'm sure the When Death await followers would love to see that on there yeah that's just a tremendous honor the fact that you saved your life and you saved a med life and you conceivably saved that young lady's Life by way of him not her not having to drive them away and potentially hurt her as well so yeah and along those lines there was a number of witnesses that were uh we found on your license plate reader that nobody was coming forward so we actually had to I uh locate the witnesses oh my God no but he was calling us so I mean this story really just has it all you know like the survival uh suspense uh probably some things to talk about about a Performance Management and diet um along with you know just the the General Dynamics of of uh cops and communities in in communities with gangs I mean you had drug dealers uh wiping and helping out with the crime scene like there's just there's so much on this thank you so much for sharing it yeah hey real quick can I let Danny have the last word on this in terms of if you could share with us Danny the significance of this for say our civilian Personnel that are out there yeah I one thing you know I've presented my incident to high school students to college students and one thing that I always reiterate is that the importance of staying in shape um ever being involved in a situation where it means a matter of life and death if you're being attacked The Importance of Being in shape be ready and being able to fight back for survival and I go this isn't just supplied in law enforcement it could be you know nowadays you get so many people that are getting attacked in the streets for no reason you know I I explain to them you have to be aware of your surroundings be aware when you're walking down the street who's coming up on you and if they do attack you don't just give in fight back because this could be a matter of life and death sometimes and I always stress that too you know like when I talk about my incident I don't just apply it to like I said law enforcement apply to Citizens as well the importance of uh you know if being in shape taking care of your body taking care of yourself being prepared it's vital it's vital nowadays because there's too many too many too much Finance out there right now and you see it all over the world all over the country and here in California yeah you know you know I appreciate it that's great thank you so much thank you