With no warning or provocation, Martha Clark’s boyfriend blew the right side of her face off with a shotgun on Christmas Eve.
But as she prayed, thinking she was dying, Denver police officer Eric Gray picked her up out of a pool of blood and carried her to an ambulance.
He rode with her to the hospital, holding her hand and speaking to her when she faded toward unconsciousness. He asked her questions to build a criminal case, jotting the answers on a candy wrapper he found on the floor of the ambulance.
After three reconstructive surgeries on her face, Clark called the Police Department and said she wanted to talk to the officer who helped her. At police headquarters Wednesday, Clark again met Gray and her paramedics for the first time since her shooting.
“I appreciate everything people did for me. You all got me out of a bad situation,” Clark said, with tears streaming down her badly scarred face. “I thought I was dying.”
Equally as emotional was Gray as he recounted the experience.
“The fact that she is here is truly inspiring,” Gray said.
Thomas McBride, 50, called police late Christmas Eve to report that he had just shot someone at 3343 Kearney St. He surrendered when police arrived. He was arrested for investigation of attempted homicide and has since been released on bail, said Denver police spokesman Virginia Quiñones.
“He didn’t give me any inkling he was going to do this,” Clark said after the ceremony.
Since the shooting, Clark has undergone a series of surgeries. She lost her right eye. Bones from her head and a metal plate were used to reconstruct her face.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
