Fort Worth

Fort Worth Officer Returns to Patrol Two Years After Being Shot

A Fort Worth police officer who was shot five times two years ago returned to patrol this week, thanked the community for its support and shared details of the night it happened.

On Sept. 16, 2016, Officer Xavier Serrano was dispatched to a family’s home in south Fort Worth after a 911 call about a suicide.

But it turned out there was no suicide. An 81-year-old man had been murdered, found shot in his head in a bedroom.

The person suspected in the man's murder, his son, was hiding in a shed in the back yard.

"I remember going into that shed,” Serrano said in a news conference at police headquarters Friday. “I remember a gold-colored handgun coming out behind something, and I started taking rounds."

He saw each one.

"I remember all the flashes,” Serrano said. “I guess it just kind of went in slow motion. I remember seeing my shirt tear open. I remember the flash from his gun every time he pulled the trigger. I remember seeing mine for every time I pulled mine."

Serrano was shot five times in the left hand, left forearm, left bicep that entered his chest, his right shoulder and in the chest.

A SWAT team would later find the shooter dead inside the shed. But at that moment, Serrano just wanted to get out of the danger zone.

"It took me a while to realize I've been shot,” he recalled. “I'm still trying to get up, trying to figure out where my gun went. And after awhile, I couldn't find it. I started looking at my arm. Things didn't look right. So I figured, 'Alright it's time to crawl out.' I used the good arm to get out."

Serrano was training a rookie that night who also was shot. Officer Ray Azucena was shot once in his bulletproof vest and had a quick recovery.

Just days later, Azucena got a standing ovation from school children at a "Back the Blue" rally and quickly went back to work.

"That bullet hit me right in the chest, right on the heart,” he told students. “I got a big old bruise right here. But by the grace of God, I'm here and alive."

Serrano, though, was more seriously injured.

He went home from the hospital after just five days, but would need four surgeries, and rehabilitation, over a period of months.

"My family and I definitely appreciate all the support,” Serrano said. “We've seen it. We've felt it. It's been nonstop for the last two years. We appreciate every bit of it."

The father of three returned to patrol for the first time Tuesday. He works the midnight shift in south Fort Worth.

"I guess it was like stepping into my old routine,” he said. “Kiss each one of the kids, tell them bye. Kiss the wife, tell her bye. She said, 'Be safe.' And off I go."

After two years, Serrano is back. Back in uniform. Back serving the citizens.

"It's just what we do,” he said. “Go to work. Sometimes get hurt. Things happen. You heal. You go back."

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