SAN JOSE – A San Jose police officer who was shot and critically injured while responding to a family disturbance call in mid-August has been released from the hospital, police said.
The officer spent a total of nine weeks in the hospital and underwent half a dozen major surgeries, the San Jose Police Department said in a social media post Friday afternoon.
A 45-second video attached to the post showed the officer being wheeled out of the hospital to the applause of her colleagues and then later walking with the aid of a cane.
Police said the officer is “now home recovering.”
The shooting happened Aug. 16 outside a two-story townhouse near Auzerais Avenue and Race Street. The .38-caliber bullet hit the officer below her protective vest, causing damage to her intestine, colon, liver and gall bladder, and fracturing her spine.
Gabriel Mario Carreras, 44, was arrested in connection with the shooting. He is facing a felony charge of attempted murder of a police officer and various firearm assault charges.
The officer and her partner went to the townhouse around 8:25 a.m. after a pregnant woman reported that her husband was drunk, tried to hit her and broke down a bathroom door. He also told her he “did not want the baby,” according to police.
As the officers were trying to get through a locked gate, one of them noticed a second-floor door was open and called for the occupants to exit. Police said Carreras came out, raised his arm and fired a pistol once, hitting and injuring the officer.
The injured officer crawled toward her partner, who pulled her to safety and began treating her wounds with another officer.
The officers did not fire back at Carreras, who was arrested after a four-hour standoff with police.
As a convicted felon, Carreras was not allowed to have a firearm, police said. He was found guilty in 2005 of assault with a deadly weapon and participating in a criminal street gang.