Carrollton Resident Uses PD Radio To Help Injured Officer
CARROLLTON (CBSDFW.COM) – Tim Bailey and his dog, Chief, were out for their morning walk when they heard the impact Wednesday.
"I'd never heard a crash so loud before," said Bailey.
T-boned at an intersection by another driver, Carrollton police officer Matt Bonner lay seriously injured and trapped inside his squad car.
When he tried to call for help on his radio, he was barely able to speak. In a radio transmission recording, his words sound slurred and unintelligible.
"He was groggy. Kind of lucid, but not by much," said Bailey.
Grabbing the police radio, Bailey took over.
A recording captured him calling out, "Officer Bonner is down, badly; 317 Whitlock and Old Denton Road."
"He couldn't talk for himself, so I did it for him," said Bailey.
In his 23 years in law enforcement, Lt. Doug Mitchell said he has never heard a civilian's voice on the police radio.
"The emotions just go straight out the roof," Mitchell said. "When you hear a citizen on the radio, you know that officer is totally incapacitated."
This Good Samaritan doesn't think he did anything too special, although he'll probably never forget this particular morning walk.
"Pretty surreal," he said, of the experience. "I just stayed with him until they got there."
Despite some broken bones, Officer Bonner was released from the hospital Thursday.
A second driver, he too injured in the crash, was also allowed to go home. Carrollton police are investigating and have yet to determine who is at fault.
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