A Massachusetts State Trooper, who was wounded in a shootout with a man wanted for killing a local police officer last month, says he is healing and anxious to return to work. The trooper was identified publicly for the first time Monday and talked about the SWAT team raid during which he was shot.
As a member of the Massachusetts State Police Special Technical Operations unit for a decade, Trooper A.J. Kardoos said he had routinely been sent into hundreds of dangerous situations. But, he said he knew it would not be routine to try to arrest Jorge Zambrano, who was wanted for the murder of Auburn Police Officer Ronald Tarentino during a traffic stop in the early morning hours of May 22.
" A situation like this is unique," said Kardoos. " A barricaded subject, a person so determined as this, is in fact unique. Not many times have we experienced this."
The SWAT team members found Zambrano holed up in a closet in a second floor bedroom of a duplex house in Oxford. When police entered the room, Zambrano reached out with a handgun from behind clothes hanging in the closet and started firing.
A bullet struck Kardoos near the armpit, in a gap in the Kevlar vest he was wearing. He said he was in a lot of pain, but did not panic.
" I knew noting vital was struck. I could feel all my fingers and toes, so I knew it wasn't that bad."
Other troopers returned fire and killed Zambrano.
The bullet shattered the bone in his upper left arm. Kardoos was released from the hospital on May 26 and attended the funeral for officer Tarentino. He plans to start physical therapy soon and is hoping to be back on duty as soon as possible.
" You want to seek some normalcy," said Kardoos. " You want to go back to work and contribute, play with your children, play golf, quite frankly, and do the things that make you happy."
Kardoos, at a news conference at State Police headquarters in Framingham, praised the paramedics from the UMass Memorial Hospital who work with the SWAT team, the doctors and nurses who took care of him and fellow state troopers who provided moral support with such things as catered meals while he was hospitalized.
" It's a tragedy that an officer had to die. I just keep coming back to that," said Kardoos. " I hope people don't forget the Auburn police and the Tarentino family, and I hope they heal as fast as I am."
The news conference Monday was the first time police discussed in some limited detail the effort to apprehend Zambrano.
Major Richard Prior, the officer in charge of the raid in Oxford, said authorities tried for an hour to persuade Zambrano to surrender. A friend of the wanted man came out of the duplex and talked to police.
" I asked if ( Zambrano) was going to come out. The subject stated, ' No. He wants suicide by cop. He's not coming out alive,' " said Prior.
Zambrano had a long criminal record. He was on probation for assaulting a police officer. Some questioned if he should have been in jail. Kardoos said he had no opinion on the controversy.
"I don't think it is a proper exercise to start throwing blame around," said Kardoos. " We are police officers. We are not in charge of administering justice. We do what we are suppose to do."
Kardoos, Monday, also recalled a former colleague, State Trooper Thomas Clardy, who was killed on the MassPike in March when a speeding car slammed into the back of his cruiser. The two had come through the same police academy class 18 years ago.
