Sgt. Anthony Elliott, who was shot in the head and unable to walk after the incident, is back on the job with SDPD following months of grueling recovery from his near-death encounter at a 4S Ranch strip mall, reports NBC 7’s Shelby Bremer.
Reflecting on the anniversary of his shooting, a San Diego police sergeant critically wounded in an exchange of gunfire last December said his family’s journey has been difficult but he feels blessed, as his recovery has defied the odds and he and his wife are preparing to welcome a new “miracle baby.”
On Dec. 7, 2023, Anthony Elliott was shot by a suspect in a vehicle theft and domestic-abuse case in a 4S Ranch-area shopping center. He and his wife remember it like it was yesterday.
“The night I left, I was playing with the kids in the street,” Elliott said. “She was cooking and getting ready to put the kids down. And I said, ‘Alright, honey, bye.’ And I gave her a kiss, and it was like a normal night, and I just never came back.”
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Shot in the head, he knows there is no closer call.
“The bullet came a millimeter away from me, instead of being in a hospital bed, it could have been a grave,” Elliott said.
Elliott underwent brain surgery and was partially paralyzed, then was transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Colorado to relearn everything.
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“We had a doctor right before his brain surgery basically tell us he wasn't going to walk again,” Elliott's wife, Laura, said.
Through sheer determination and their love for one another, they said, they made it through to the other side.
“I kept asking doctors, ‘Am I going to walk again? Am I going to walk again?’ And it wasn't until my wife, she said, ‘You’ve got to stop asking people if you're going to walk again. Just make the decision yourself,’ ” Anthony said. “And it was at that point on where I made the decision that I'm going to: I'm going to walk again.”
He’s not only walking, he returned to work at the department in October. Now, they have so much to celebrate, with two young sons and a new baby girl due on Dec. 27.
“When this happens, you think about how your life changed," Laura said. "And one of the first things I thought of was, ‘Man, we were talking about having another kid. And I don't know if that's going to happen, you know, anymore.' So once we, you know, got back to normal life and everything was, it was pretty good, I was like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do this because that's one of the first thoughts I had.’ ”
For their family, this holiday season looks far different from last.
“It's funny and not funny," Anthony said. "We might spend Christmas again in the hospital, but for two totally different reasons. It's kind of our miracle baby, you know? Like, she wouldn't be here, you know, if I didn't make it, which was very close — by a very slim margin I made it.”
"In a couple of weeks, I get to see her turn into Wonder Woman again," Anthony continued, adding that he's "very blessed."
The couple said that nearly losing everything gave them more perspective than they ever imagined.
“Everyone should take a moment every single day to just appreciate what you have, because anything could happen,” Laura said. “You could slip on a rug and you could bump your head, you could get in a car accident and — just make sure you're not wasting the minutes and the moments.”
“Don't take your ability to use your legs and your arms and play with your kids, and hold your family for granted, because all that could be lost in a second,” Anthony added.
