Officer Carlos Yanez was wounded in the same shooting that took his partner Ella French’s life. ‘His personality is still there,’ said his dad, hours after Yanez’s release from a rehabilitation center.
Fellow police officers and community members alike gathered Thursday to celebrate and offer well wishes as Officer Carlos Yanez was released from the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, more than two months after the Chicago police officer was shot four times while on duty.
Yanez was shot in the head and seriously wounded Aug. 7 while conducting a traffic stop of three people in a vehicle in West Englewood around 9 p.m. His partner, Ella French, was shot and killed.
“We were just overcome with joy that he’s survived, let alone made some improvements along the way,” said Yanez’s father, Carlos Yanez Sr. “The good thing we are most happy about is that his personality is still there, and his humor and his outlook on things.”
After months of recovery, Carlos Yanez Jr. was greeted Thursday at the entrance of the rehabilitation center with a long round of applause and mariachi music as he sat in his wheelchair and was swarmed by the crowd.
“He’s a real hero,” one person can be heard saying in a video of the event posted to the Fraternal Order of Police’s Facebook page.
According to the elder Yanez, his son suffered four gunshot wounds. He was shot in his eye, cheek, brain and back — and doctors were unable to remove all four bullets.
Yanez is unable to move the left side of his body because of the bullet wound to the right side of his brain. He is slowly regaining strength in his left arm and can move his fingers.
But that left-side paralysis means Yanez must now remain in a wheelchair, his father said, and he has been moved out of his second-floor, walk-up apartment.
His discharge from the rehab center will allow Carlos Yanez Jr. to once again sleep in the same residence as his wife and son.
“He was able to hug his son again, very few times he has been able to do that, and hold him,” said Carlos Yanez Sr.
While the officer’s dreams may have shifted due to his new circumstances, he has many plans for the future. Carlos Yanez Jr. wants to work more with kids, his father said, in youth centers in the Englewood area.
“I told him,” the elder Yanez said, “‘you’re just challenged more on some things, so just get stronger on another thing.’ That’s all.”
The Yanez family set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to help pay for the wounded officer’s recovery, which exceeded its goal of raising $350,000. Carlos Yanez Sr. said the support his family has received from the community has been “astronomical.”
“It’s been overwhelming and beautiful and thank you, everybody,” he said. “I want to communicate from my family, from the bottom of my heart, just thank all the people out there just praying for him.”
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