Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 8, 1990 TAG: 9007080140
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"And it never was so good to look up and see that blue sky," Fleet said Saturday afternoon.
Fleet, 34, was shot in the neck Friday morning while trying to evict a man from a home in Ironto.
He spent the night at the Radford hospital after undergoing surgery to remove the .22-caliber bullet lodged in a muscle in his neck. He learned Saturday that the bullet came within a half-inch of a major artery in his neck.
"I'm a little stiff and sore. But all things considered, I'm a very fortunate man to be here," he said in a telephone interview from his Blacksburg home. "It just makes you realize there's a God above, because he was definitely looking out for me."
Fleet also learned Saturday that a total of eight shots were fired at him. "I thought it was only four . . . but it all happened in an instant," he said.
Here's his account:
Fleet and Deputy Lloyd Heslip arrived at a small Ironto home off Virginia 647 about 10 a.m. Friday to evict Jerry Ray Brandau, 26, of Elliston.
They announced their identities and when Brandau refused to come out, Fleet kicked at the front door.
"It didn't open. There was a carpet or something in the way, so I reached in to move it. Then that's when the shots started," he said.
Fleet moved to the right side of the door and one of the bullets came through the wall, splintering pieces of wood and hitting him. He first thought it hit his ear, but when he reached up to hold it and saw all the blood, he knew it was worse.
"And I knew I had to get off that porch before he started shooting again," he said.
He dived into the grass and crawled to his patrol car, where Heslip put a bandage on his neck.
"He [Heslip] kept me sane and cool," said Fleet, a 13-year police veteran.
The two deputies then called for the occupants of the house to come out. Brandau's wife, Betty, came out first. And when Brandau came out, Fleet was able to frisk him and handcuff him.
He then went into the house to find the gun that had been used to shoot him, a semiautomatic rifle.
"I often wondered what I'd do if I was ever shot. I guess you do that in this business," he said. "But I realized you don't think, you just do."
He admits it made him feel better to arrest the man accused of shooting him.
Brandau is charged with attempted capital murder. He was released Friday afternoon after posting bond, which was set at $150,000 cash or $250,000 property.
Arraignment is scheduled for Monday.
Fleet will be home for at least a week. But he says the dozens of calls he's been receiving from friends and police all over will make the time pass a little easier.
by CNB