Dan Walters Obituary - Page 4
November 12, 2003 changed Walters’ life. He recounted the events to San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Fred Dickey in 2013. He and his partner, Officer Aaron Hildreth, were driving down 43rd Street when they saw a patrol car, with its lights on. Unbeknownst to the officers, they had stopped a violent domestic disturbance in progress. Ingram had stopped when he saw a car that had been double parked, blocking traffic. The driver, Jaime Contreras, had been chasing his wife and children in his car and was threatening to kill them. Contreras opened fire when Ingram approached. That was when Walters and Hildreth arrived. The other officer had been shot, but the bullet hit him in the handcuffs.
Walters recounted that moment. “I immediately thought, ‘Oh, shit!’ and jumped out of the car. Once out, I looked left, then looked back right, and here’s this gunman coming directly at me from about 12 to 15 feet with a gun pointed directly at my face. He didn’t shoot immediately. He kept advancing and stopped at about arm’s length.”
“In that moment, I decided I wasn’t going to let him just stand there and shoot me in the face, so I lunged for the gun, missed, then grabbed him, attempting to get him to the ground and wait for help. He put the gun to the back of my neck and fired.
“I heard a bang, and I’m falling to the ground, looking up at this guy, thinking, ‘Oh, God! I can’t believe it: I’m dead.’ I felt nothing. I was looking straight up and I again thought: ‘I can’t believe I’m dead.’ Then, it all went black. As the suspect was distracted, Officer Walter’s partner was able to shoot and kill the suspect. In the confusion, Walters was run over by a passing vehicle. When he came to, he realized he couldn’t feel anything below his neck. The bullet shattered on impact and left Walters with bullet and bone fragments in his spinal cord. He was paralyzed from the neck down.
“He had a great work ethic,” said Padres manager Bruce Bochy, who had been a coach for the team while Walters was playing, when he heard the news. “He had great perseverance and did everything he could to sharpen his talent and work his way to the big club.”
Walters was awarded the Medal for Valor and the SDPD Purple Heart for trying to help another officer amid the threat of gunfire.
Walters spent four months in a hospital in Colorado specializing in spinal cord injuries. He suffered two crushed cervical vertebrae. His parents took turns flying to Colorado to be with him. The rehabilitation was paid for by the San Diego Police Officers Association and Padres owner John Moores. He returned to California in March of 2004. He had recovered some use of his left arm, enough to control his motorized wheelchair.
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