Cop Refused to ‘Lay There and Die’

Anaheim Police Officer Thomas “Kasey” Geary, shot point blank in the face and resting in a growing pool of blood, got a fleeting glimpse of death and brushed it aside.

“I remember lying there, looking up at the stars. I remember reaching for my radio,” he said haltingly. “I decided not to give up. I decided I was not going to lay there and die.”

Geary, 39, a Medal of Valor recipient, was assisted by a guardian angel of sorts that night, Long Beach park ranger Carlos Ortiz, who stopped to help the wounded officer seconds after he was shot July 10.

Geary recounted bits and pieces of the late-night shooting at a news conference Friday before leaving UCI Medical Center in Orange to finish his recovery at home.

He also met with Ortiz for the first time since the shooting, and the two men talked about the incident that brought them together.

“I feel like he truly saved my life,” Geary said.

Then, prodded by a television reporter, the two men embraced.

“In my heart, I knew he was going to be OK,” said Ortiz, a park ranger for 14 years. “It looked bad, but I knew we could help him.”

Ortiz said he did not hesitate to rush to Geary’s aid.

“I did what I thought was best. I had no second thoughts,” he said.

He took off his shirt and applied pressure to the wound until another officer with paramedic training arrived.

Geary, an 18-year veteran, said he is eager to return to work, but doctors said he faces weeks of rehabilitation. But except for noticeable stiffness and a slow gait, Geary did not look like a man who had been shot near the jaw with a large-caliber handgun.

Dr. John Kusske, a member of a team of doctors who treated Geary at UCI Medical Center, attributed the patrolman’s remarkable recovery to his indomitable spirit.

“He showed a lot of courage and persistence in hanging in there in a very difficult situation,” Kusske said.

Doctors left two major bullet fragments in Geary’s neck, close to his spinal cord, Kusske said.

Although plastic surgery left only a barely discernible scar below his left cheekbone, Geary has limited mobility and strength in his left arm because of nerve damage. He also has trouble turning to his left.

Nevertheless, Geary said, “I’m glad to be here and anxious to get to work. . . . This is my life. I’m anxious to get back in the [patrol] car.”

He also thanked the hundreds of well-wishers who sent cards and flowers to the hospital during his stay.

Geary and Ortiz, dressed in his park ranger uniform and carrying a pistol, appeared subdued, but the men said they would remain friends for the rest of their lives. Ortiz said he hoped one day to ride along with Geary on patrol.

Ortiz has said he was driving east on Ball Road when he saw Geary stop a Ford Explorer on the Ball Road onramp to the Orange Freeway about 1:50 a.m.

However, he sensed something was wrong with the police stop. He made an illegal U-turn and came on the scene just as the sport-utility vehicle was speeding off.

Less than two days later, police arrested Juan Carlos Alcaraz, who was later charged with attempted murder of a police officer. Alcaraz, said by authorities to be a Santa Ana gang member, led investigators to the abandoned, burned-out Explorer in Yorba Linda. The 25-year-old is scheduled to be arraigned next week.

Anaheim Police Sgt. Rick Martinez said Friday that investigators are also looking for a woman believed to have been in the Ford Explorer with Alcaraz, but they don’t know who she is. He also said there may have been others in the truck.

Geary declined to discuss any other details of the shooting, including the reason for the traffic stop. An Anaheim police spokesman also declined to comment.

Anaheim Police Chief Roger Baker praised Geary and offered a reminder that “every day, officers in your community put their lives on the line to protect all of us.”

But Geary said he was no different from dozens of other cops.

“We all go out every day and do the same thing,” he said. “I’m not the only officer walking around with a bullet in his body.”

Geary said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“If he’s going to shoot an officer, if it wouldn’t have been me it would’ve been somebody else.”

Catherine Geary, an Orange County sheriff’s deputy, sat behind her husband, holding their 4-year-old daughter, Alexis, on her lap. Chad Geary, 16, and Heidi Geary, 17, Thomas Geary’s children from a previous marriage, also sat behind their father. All were beaming.

Ortiz, who was also accompanied by his wife, received a written proclamation from Baker and is scheduled to be honored by the Anaheim City Council.