BRANDON, Fla. — After days of fighting at Tampa General Hospital, Hillsborough County Deputy Manuel Santos gets to go home.
This comes after he and Corporal Carlos Brito were severely injured after Ralph Bouzy was seen ramming a car into both deputies.
"It was the scariest moment of my life," Santos explained.
Sheriff Chad Chronister said it was a targeted attack as Bouzy used his car as a weapon.
"At that moment, we heard tires squealing, and Torres said, 'Be careful, that might be him.' He comes back. We see the car immediately. I tried to push Corporal out of the way. I pushed him out of the way. I pushed myself out of the way," Santos explained.
He has surgery on Tuesday and at least two more as they try to reconstruct his knee. But on Saturday, he finally got to go home.
"I'm so grateful that tonight he gets to walk out of here or even get wheeled out of here, on his own accord, or even that he’s alive. He’s so excited and is excited to sleep in his own home tonight," Sheriff Chronister said.
Corporal Brito faces a much more difficult road as surgeons try to salvage his leg. We're told he went through his second surgery, and doctors are cautiously optimistic.
Santos said he’s hoping his colleague and best friend can recover back to normal and they can go on with their next shift.
"Everything we do in this career, I believe, is instinctively. It’s what we do. We’re chosen to be a cop, a police officer. We’re chosen to give our lives away at a moment's notice, and that’s what I was going to do that day."
