Matt Casias does not need to look at the dime-size scar where the bullet entered his chest to be reminded of what is important in life.
“The school called today and said to pick my daughter up, that she’s sick,” said the 27-year-old Casias, a single father who was shot last year while defending a woman from armed robbers. “That’s the kind of stuff that I value.”
Casias said he has learned to treasure moments from each day, especially those with his daughter, Faith. During a conversation last week about the changes in his life, he hovered protectively near Faith, who used one sentence to sum up the enormous impact of the past year:
“My daddy got shot,” the 7-year-old said.
Shortly after taking a .25-caliber bullet Oct. 28 during an armed robbery attempt, things looked grim for Casias.
He had little money, no health insurance, thousands of dollars in medical bills, a struggling new business and a slug that remained lodged under his right shoulder blade for four months. It burned in cold weather.
“It felt like somebody’s knuckles digging on my back,” he said.
Today, everything is brightly different.
The nightmares that visited shortly after the shooting have stopped, a surgeon removed the bullet for free, and the ensuing publicity over Casias’ selfless act caused folks to donate thousands of dollars in support.
Casias was able to pay off his medical bills of more than $50,000. A former Golden Gloves boxer, he had loaned out the basement of his business as a makeshift gym for neighborhood kids, and after the shooting, was offered the use of a better facility.
After paying off his medical bills, there was money left over, so Casias bought a boxing ring for the gym.
It was a far cry from the year before.
There was barely enough money for Casias and a friend to start Power Imaging in October 2003, so he had to skimp on health insurance.
Yet his own welfare was not a thought a year later when he saw four men shadowing 63-year- old Brynda Turner outside his shop at 767 Santa Fe Drive in Denver. When one of them pounced on Turner, knocked her to the ground and tugged at her purse, Casias acted.
“We heard a scuffle, and Matt bolted for the door,” recalled Bette Phelps, 59, a co-worker. “Matt grabbed one of those young men. The next thing I heard was ‘pow.”‘
Casias stumbled back into the shop, clutched his chest and collapsed. Phelps, who has a grown son, cradled Casias’ head while another co-worker called police.
“Blood was coming up his throat. His lung had collapsed,” she said. “Matt became my son at that moment. I was coaching him to breathe.”
The worst part of that experience, Casias said, was when paramedics inserted a tube into his side to drain the blood from his lung so that he might live.
“I was conscious the whole time,” he remembered, demonstrating how they tied his right arm up and his left arm down before making the incision. “It was extremely painful, almost worse than the gunshot itself.”
Within two weeks, he said, he was back at work.
“I was going crazy. It’s hard for me to sit,” said Casias, who shares custody of his daughter with her mother.
The months that followed, said his mother, Geneva Casias- Sena, 48, were rough. Her son always acted upbeat on the outside, Casias-Sena said, even when she knew he was in pain.
“He handles things well, but he doesn’t show a lot of emotion sometimes,” Casias-Sena said. “He keeps a lot to himself. I keep digging.”
Their relationship is different from when Casias was in high school, she said, when an arrest during his junior year caused her son to promise he would turn his life around. Before that, she said, getting in trouble appeared to be his only motivation. She can recall many mornings where she battled him to get out of bed.
Now, she said, “I think he has learned to live his life every day to the fullest.”
The suspect in the shooting, 17- year-old Michael Cordova, faces charges as an adult, including attempted first-degree murder. His trial was recently continued. The other defendants pleaded guilty in the theft and were sentenced to probation, said a spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney’s office.
Casias said he stays in touch with Turner, the woman he defended, and that she and her husband often come to his shop and check on him.
“They make sure I’m feeling all right, that I healed up OK,” he said.
They do not talk about the shooting. Casias said he does not dwell on it.
“It takes too much energy to be angry,” said Casias, who remembers when his mother worried whether he would ever turn his life around.
But now he has, twice, and he says he is thankful for everyone who helped.
He was able to buy a year’s worth of health insurance for himself and his daughter.
As for the support that came from hundreds of strangers, “we’re printing out thank-you notes, about a thousand,” Casias said. “And on the front, Faith wrote, ‘Thanks for helping my daddy.”‘
Staff writer Amy Herdy can be reached at 303-820-1752 or aherdy@denverpost.com.
