DORAL, FLA. (WSVN) - A Doral Police sergeant who was shot in the chest during a training accident is speaking out while recovering at home from his injuries.
Eric Fernandez, 29, is talking about the fight for his life after he was shot during a police training exercise last Wednesday.
“You have an option at that moment in time — either you take flight or you fight at that moment in time, and obviously, my option there was to fight from the very beginning,” he said. “It was a normal day on the job. I got up, got dressed, put my uniform on, do what I love doing, gave my family a hug and kiss. That’s what I do every day.”
Fernandez was put on a stretcher and airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center after the accident. He suffered a pierced lung and two broken ribs.
Investigators said this was not a live fire training, which meant bullets were not supposed to be used. However, a live round was somehow loaded in a gun, and another officer shot the 29-year-old in the chest.
When asked if he remembered being shot, Fernandez said, “Yeah. I was conscious.”
When asked what was going through his mind at that moment, he replied, “Surviving. I had no choice. I got a pregnant wife. I wasn’t going to let that go. I wasn’t going to miss that day for nothing in this world.”
Priscilla Fernandez, the sergeant’s wife, was at home when Fernandez’s brother called and told her what happened.
“He said, ‘Are you alone?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m alone at home,’ and he goes, ‘Eric has been shot,'” she said, “and at that moment, I fell to my knees because I didn’t know what to do, where to go, who to call.”
“The ride up, all I could tell myself was that I had no choice,” Fernandez said. “I could either close my eyes and hope that my body compensates for me and keeps me up, but I kept seeing my wife, kept seeing my daughter. I kept seeing my future daughter, who is coming in the next month and a half– feel like I saw her already. My grandmother, close friends of mine, friends who have passed. I felt like they were all there.”
Fernandez’s family, friends and dozens of officers from all departments across South Florida gathered at the hospital to support him while he recovered.
Cellphone video taken a day after the accident captured Fernandez walking down the hospital’s hallway. He was discharged from the hospital three days later.
Fernandez and his family are calling it a miracle that he is alive.
“I’m blessed. I’m blessed that he’s still here,” Priscilla Fernandez said. “He’s still alive. He’s still breathing.”
“A split second. That’s all it was. That’s all it takes,” Fernandez said. “I’m just grateful to be here. I’m grateful to be alive, to be able to speak about it, to see my family. I wasn’t ready to go. I wasn’t letting them go.”
Fernandez did not want to speak about the other officer involved in the accidental shooting because the accident remains under investigation.
He also said he was not wearing a bulletproof vest when the shooting happened.
Fernandez said he’s anxiously waiting to meet his new daughter and wants to get back into the field as soon as possible.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.