17 months ago, I received a phone call in the middle of the night that would change our lives. Only a few hours earlier, we were singing Happy Birthday and blowing out candles. It was a night just like any other. But little did we know that that night would take a life changing turn. He spent the last 21 years protecting our community and putting in thousands of hard worked hours. His only wish each shift was to come home safe each morning, just like anyone else. His life has been to protect and serve. He is known to be calm and collected at all times. He is known to his brothers and sisters in blue as "Rock" because he is so tough. As much as he's known for being tough, he is also fair and solid. Three years ago, he made a choice to add my girls and I to his life. He chose to wrap us in his arms of safety and calm. He has taken on the role as a father to my 2 daughters. When his duties are done at work, he comes home and takes up duty as a protective dad and partner. 17 months ago, our world was shaken. At approximately 11:07 p.m. on April 17th, 2019, I was woken out of sleep to my phone ringing. As I squinted to see the screen and realized it was the hospital number, I already knew. I instantly knew that something was wrong. The doctor on the other end told me that Kirk Carter had been in a trauma. She proceeded to tell me that he had been shot twice. This man who always told me "there's nothing to worry about" each day that he left for work, had been shot. This man who always smiled and reassured me that everything would be okay, was not. When the doctor told me he had been shot in his upper leg and hand, the only relief was because I knew he would survive his injuries. But my heart broke because I also knew that this would change his life. His goals now on hold. The normal we had embraced only hours earlier celebrating his 46th birthday and my words to him before he left, "you shouldn't work on your birthday", echoing in my mind. I needed to get to him. I needed to see him and touch him. I needed to know that he was okay. When the officer who drove me to the hospital that night, finally arrived, all I remember is running. I ran through the back doors of the ambulance bay and asked "where is he?" I ran to the trauma room where the love of my life lay on a gurney. He was pale but his face was calm. His first words to me were, "I'm 100%". Moments later, the doctor came in and showed us the x-ray of his femur. It was shattered. Over the next 5 days, he endured 2 surgeries. One to put a metal rod in his right femur and another to put pins in his shattered wrist. The newspaper released a statement saying that his injuries were non-life threatening, but they fail to say that they are life changing. 17 months of physical therapy, surgeries, a wheelchair, walker, cane, appointments, pain, blood clots. The behind the scenes aftermath that this incident has caused.
Over time, I learned more details about what had happened that night. Kirk was assisting on a domestic call and was the one who happened to walk into the room where a man was hiding in a closet. That man opened fire on him. Without hesitation, his brothers and sisters in blue held the line from there in the face of chaos. The officers who were on that call and ran into the crossfire, the officer and explorer who ran into the house only minutes after the shootout to pull Kirk down a flight of stairs, applied a tourniquet and pulled him out of the house so that he could get to the hospital, to the officers from all around the county who rushed to get there; I am forever grateful. To this day, it is still very hard for me to imagine those moments. This man that I love, almost taken from me. He was there to protect and serve, as always. A job that has the risk of unknown factors every minute of every single day. Kirk is the epitome of the thin blue line. He separates the good from the bad while creating order from chaos. He is brave, strong and endlessly positive, despite the challenges that the chaotic bad of his career has inflicted on him. He has yet to go back to active road patrol still but he hopes to eventually. As a spouse, I am terrified for those days ahead. But I am also supportive of anything he wants to do. He has worked so hard to get back what was taken from him. I am one of the fortunate ones who can stand here today and say that he is still with us. There are so many spouses, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers who cannot. I pray every single day for all of the law enforcement officers, their families, and their brothers and sisters in blue, that they too make it home from their shifts every day.
