(Greg Sherwood)
UTAH COUNTY – For most of us, yesterday was just another day. But, for Utah County Deputy Greg Sherwood it was the fifth anniversary of the attack that almost killed him.
Sherwood remembers a lot about what led up to the shooting in Santaquin. He remembers hearing about the attack that killed Sergeant Corey Wride. He recalls the bullet entering his right temple. He can even remember putting his vehicle in park after he was hit. Immediately after the attack, he was in a dark place. Sherwood says he wasn’t sure if he would ever go back to the force.
“I had no idea how I was going to recover. I didn’t know what I would be capable of doing,” he says.
Sherwood says he was inspired by the survival story of Brody Young, the park ranger who was shot nine times in Moab in 2010.
“I thought, ‘Hey, if Brody can do that, then I can come back,” he adds.
His road to recovery would be a long one. In fact, Sherwood says he still has flashbacks, and there will always be things that trigger thoughts of the attack. He had serious balance problems, anxiety, fatigue and a list of other symptoms left behind from the bullet. Plus, the emotional impact was massive.
“I lost a friend that I had worked with on the SWAT Team, side by side. The SWAT Team are a close-knit group of guys. It sucks when you lose one of your own and the brain injury amplified that,” Sherwood says.
Still, he says it was crucial that he find effective therapists to help him through the pain.
“This person [shooter Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui] has already taken so much from the Sheriff’s Office, from the law enforcement community, from myself and my family, I wasn’t going to let him take any more.”
Now, he’s calling on anyone who needs any kind of therapy to reach out and get it. He says he’s made massive strides and it’s all due to his therapy.