An off-duty police officer has been permanently paralyzed from the waist down after being shot “dead center in the back” while helping break up a bar fight in crime-ridden Chicago, according to prosecutors and his family.
Officer Daniel Golden, an Army veteran from a family of cops and firefighters, was struck when at least 19 shots were fired as he walked away from a fight he had helped end early Saturday.
The off-duty officer was not involved in the initial fight — and even helped defend the man accused of then grabbing a gun and shooting him, prosecutors said at a court hearing Tuesday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times .
“This devastating, life-changing event forever changed the course of his life,” Golden’s aunt Eileen Gorman wrote in an online fundraising campaign that raised more than $775,000 in less than a day.
She said he was “out with friends and family” when he “did what any good cop would do and tried to stop the fight.”
Danny Golden is permanently paralyzed from the waist down.WLS
“The event ended when one of the offenders ran to his car, pulled out a gun and fired 20 rounds at the group as they drove away,” she wrote.
One of the bullets grazed the leg of one of the cop’s brothers. “Unfortunately, another bullet struck Dan in the back and severed his spinal cord, missing his heart by millimeters, leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down,” she wrote.
Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said at the hearing that one of the bullets hit Golden “dead center in the back,” lodging near his heart. Doctors have decided not to remove it for now, the Sun-Times said.
Demetrius Harrell is accused of taking the gun from Bryant Hayes and firing it down the street at Golden and others. The Chicago Police Department
Golden’s fiancee, Casey Shaflarski, told CBS Chicago that her lover “saved lives” with the actions that left him paralyzed — less than a year after one of his colleagues was shot and another paralyzed.
“If he hadn’t been there, who knows what would have happened,” she said.
“It sucks that this happened to someone so good … but we still have him here and that’s all that matters,” she said of her fiance, who turned 32 while in a hospital bed.
Bryant Hayes faces multiple charges, including attempted murder. The Chicago Police Department
His benefactor called him the perfect example of “what service looks like.”
“He is the son of a [Chicago Police Department] A detective and emergency room nurse, the second of seven children and served honorably as a soldier in the United States Army before joining the gang on the force.
“Four of his brothers served in the United States Army infantry from Afghanistan to Africa, Alaska and Eastern Europe. His youngest brother has enlisted in the US Army and is due out this summer. Three of his brothers also protect this city as Chicago Firefighters,” the fundraiser noted.
Justin Chrismantis allegedly turned the gun over to Bryant Hayes and faces the same charges. The Chicago Police Department
Police confirmed Tuesday that three men had been arrested, including accused shooter Bryant Hayes, 22, who faces multiple charges, including attempted murder.
Justin Chrismantis, also 22, allegedly turned the gun over to Hayes and faces the same charges. Demetrius Harrell, 28, is accused of taking the gun from Hayes and firing it down the street at Golden and others.
All three were denied bail.
Danny Golden was helping break up a bar fight in crime-ridden Chicago. Google Maps
Gun crime is on the rise in Chicago, with cops being regular targets — sparking protests against the woke Mayor Laurie Lightfoot, whom many blame for crippling the police force with reforms.
Last August, 29-year-old Ella French was shot and her partner Carlos Yanez Jr. was paralyzed during a traffic stop.
At the time, Chicago police officers turned their backs on Lightfoot when she visited Yanez Jr. — who made it clear he never wanted the progressive reformer to visit him in the hospital.
Danny Golden helped break up a fight outside a Beverly bar and was leaving when he was shot in the back. WLS Danny Golden comes from a family of cops. GoFundMe
His father, former cop Carlos Yanez Sr., told the Chicago Sun-Times that he told City Hall staff twice that his son was “not a fan of Lori Lightfoot, to put it mildly,” and that the family didn’t want her at the hospital. where he was taken on the night of the shooting.
“I said that the actions of her administration and her rhetoric of saying how the police force needs to be rebuilt or retrained or whatever, puts them in danger,” the father said at the time.
Since then, scores of other officers as well as young children have been hit in the crime-ridden city.
Danny Golden was hit by at least 19 shots. GoFundMe
This month, Fox News analyst Janno Caldwell — whose 18-year-old brother was shot in the city last month — wrongly blamed a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park on lapsed “soft crime” policies.
“The ‘defund the police’ mantra has become like a disease that’s spreading from the inner cities to the suburbs everywhere,” Caldwell told The Post.
Criminals “don’t fear” cops because police officers “can’t do their jobs,” he said.
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