Fort Worth (WBAP/KLIF News) – One year has now passed since Fort Worth Police Officer Matt Pearce was shot in the line of duty. Pearce was shot five times by a felon during a chase in March of 2016.
Pearce spent two months in the hospital and returned to desk duty in October. He met with reporters Wednesday.
“I think I have solace in the fact that I’m alive and he’s not,” Pearce says. “I get to sleep at night knowing he will never hurt anybody else ever again.”
Fort Worth police have produced a 30 minute documentary on the shooting, using video from dash and body cameras that had previously been unreleased. Pearce says his wife has seen video, but he has only listened to audio and does not plan to watch.
“That was really had,” he says. “I’m wiping tears away from my eyes. I could hear how labored my breathing is.”
Pearce had hoped to return to patrol within a year of the shooting. He says he still hopes to go back to work, but he says doctors are telling him he will likely need at least six more months of therapy.
“I’m going back. Come hell or high water, I’m going back,” Pearce says. “Don’t tell me I can’t do something. That’s the best way to get me to do it. You can ask my mother from when I was a child.”
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