Wounded Denver Police Officer Tony Lopez Jr. faces a third surgery Friday morning, but that hasn’t kept him from talking about returning to the streets of Denver as a cop.
Meghan Lopez spoke about her brother’s long road to recovery Thursday as she thanked those who saved his life after he was wounded in .
“It’s the worst feeling in the world,” she said about receiving a phone call that her brother had been shot in the line of duty. “Your stomach sinks. You go into shock and you don’t know what to do.”
Meghan Lopez credited the first police officer to respond to her brother’s call for help and the paramedics who arrived on the scene for saving his life.
The responding officer, who has not been named, used a tourniquet to stop major bleeding, she said.
Lopez Jr. does not know very much about what happened during the shooting, she said.
“It’s very vague right now,” she said.
She also did not offer specific details about his injuries, but Denver Health Medical Center officials have said a bullet tore his femoral artery.
Lopez Jr. underwent surgery immediately after the shooting and had a second surgery on Thursday morning. Friday’s surgery is expected to be “invasive,” Meghan Lopez said.
Lopez Jr., 30, followed his father’s footsteps in joining the Denver Police Department. His father, Tony Lopez Sr., is the commander of District 6, which covers downtown Denver. His son has been an officer since 2008 and is assigned to a Special Crime Attack Team in northwest Denver.
Meghan Lopez said her brother, who is the oldest of four siblings, always wanted to be a cop. She remembered him wearing police officer costumes at Halloween.
Now, he keeps asking doctors when he might be able to return to work, Meghan Lopez said.
“In his mind, he is going back out tomorrow,” she said.
He was listed in critical condition because of multiple wounds in his upper and lower body.
Meghan Lopez, who is an anchor at a television station in El Paso, said she didn’t want to talk about the shootout, saying too much attention is given to suspects in crimes.
