Chicago Police Officer Daniel Golden, is greeted by members of the Orland Park community in the hospital. | Orland Park Police Department/Facebook
Chicago Police Officer Daniel Golden, is greeted by members of the Orland Park community in the hospital. | Orland Park Police Department/Facebook
Sean Morrison, Cook County commissioner, recently offered support to a Chicago police officer who was recently shot and paralyzed.
Officer Daniel Golden, 32, played in a charity softball game for families dealing with cancer, and after, went to Sean’s Rhino Bar in Beverly on Chicago's South Side, WGN reported.
While at the bar, an altercation took place. Golden identified himself as a police officer and attempted to de-escalate the fight when someone shot him in the back, severing his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, according to WGN.
"Stay strong and keep up the fight," Morrison said in a post to his Facebook account July 16.
Golden’s friends also commented on the situation.
"His life changed in a snap of a finger," Liam Hopkins, said. "And what he's done for seven years - he protects this community in the city. He selflessly takes himself into action, and he's there debriefing, and all he does is love what he does every day is law enforcement."
Golden's fiancé, Casey Szaflarski, shared her thoughts on Golden and the incident.
"He's one of the strongest people I've ever met in my entire life" she said, in an ABC News report. "He was told he could never walk again and all he keeps talking about is he's just happy he was able to deescalate the situation from other people getting hurt."
Demitrius Harrell, 28, Bryant Hayes, 22, and Justen Krismantis, 22, are all facing charges related to the shooting, including felony unlawful use of a weapon and felony aggravated battery, WGN reported. Harrell was previously charged with two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm after he obtained a semiautomatic pistol from a member of the Black Disciples gang in 2017. In 2018, Harrell was charged with attempted bank robbery by intimidation after threatening to shoot a bank manager in Calumet City if the manager didn't give him $40,000.
Charges for all three men have been updated to include attempted murder, CBS News reported. Hundreds of people participated in a prayer service at St. Rita on Thursday to show their support for Golden, according to ABC News.
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