Dallas Cop Down is the second story from the seventh episode of Season 5, a 30-minute episode which aired on November 9, 1993 on CBS. It airs in syndication on Episode 301S: Bumper Baby; Dallas Cop Down.
Story[]
On the night of November 13, 1991 at about 7:13pm, Officer Elaina Perez and Sergeant Tony Crawford were dispatched to a suspicious phone call about suspects in the area. Sergeant Crawford didn't see anyone, neither did Officer Perez. Sergeant Crawford was told on his radio by dispatcher Isabel Querta to go to Lakewood Elementary School. She originally wanted to get more officers over there, but he said he'd be there.
Sergeant Crawford told Officer Perez to go talk to the people who called the police. He then drove to the school where he saw two white teens walking. One was wearing a trench coat and a blue cap and the other was wearing a winter coat. They did not match the description of the suspects they were looking for but were very close. Sergeant Crawford then told Officer Perez to meet him there. While he was searching through the teens, one pulled out a gun and struggled with him, firing it and shooting him. Officer Perez got there and saw him laying on the ground covered in blood. She dispatched for a ambulance. He then told her about the teens. They were white and one shot him and stole his gun and the other attacked him to a bloody pulp.
Officer Perez told Querta that Sergeant Crawford got shot in the back toward his spine and he couldn't feel his legs. Querta told Officer Perez to call his wife, Pat, to tell her what happened and that he loved her. Paramedic Kelly Lenner arrived on the scene with the rescue squad. She told him to move his legs, but he couldn't. Paramedic John Cheney also treated him. He told Cheney about his daughter, Meredith, who was the same age as Cheney's. Other officers went to his house, told Pat that he got shot, and she started to cry.
The ambulance took Sergeant Crawford to the hospital and met surgeon Michael Foreman. X-rays showed that, despite missing major organs and vessels, the bullet hit his spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He made a full recovery a year after the shooting and went back to work as an employee relations coordinator. Eventually the two suspects were arrested. Both were escaped Juvenile Detention Center inmates. The one who shot Sergeant Crawford was found guilty of attempted capitol murder and sentenced to life in prison. The one who attacked him was found guilty of aggravated assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Shortly after the incident, Sergeant Crawford was asked by the Texas Rangers to throw out the first pitch on home opener.
| Rescue 911 episodes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||