Utah Deputy Recalls Being Shot in the Head After Colleague Was Slain Five Years Ago

A Utah County Sheriff's deputy who was wounded in a shooting that left his colleague dead five years ago wants to serve as an example for other officers involved in traumatic situations.

Deputy Greg Sherwood, who was shot in the head after Sgt. Cory Wride was killed by Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui on Jan. 30, 2014, spoke to The Deseret News about the harrowing ordeal.

Wride was slain after stopping to check on a truck that was pulled off to the side of the road in Eagle Mountain. He was shot without warning while he was still sitting in his patrol car.

While responding to the scene, Sherwood knew Wride had been shot and killed and that police were searching for a white pickup truck. He positioned his patrol car in an area near Santaquin where he thought the suspects might try to escape.

Moments later, he spotted the truck and followed as Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui fired two shots at him, one of which struck him on the right side of his forehead.

Sherwood said his training kicked in and he was able to pull over and put his patrol car in park. Garcia-Juaregui was eventually killed in a shootout with officers following a long and dangerous high-speed pursuit in a snowstorm that ended near Nephi.

The woman driving the truck when both Wride and Sherwood were shot -- Meagan Dakota Grunwald -- is currently serving a sentence of 25 years to life at the Utah State Prison for aggravated murder and five years to life for a carjacking conviction.

Sherwood underwent several surgeries after the shooting and faced a long road to recovery.

"After the injury I had balance problems, memory problems. … I had a hard time concentrating, hypersensitivity to sound — noises, people. I had a hard time being in groups of people. (It was) overwhelming with hypersensitivity, couldn’t filter out all the noise with the brain injury,” he said.

Sherwood had to wear ear plugs "all the time" immediately following the incident because of his hypersensitivity to noise. He wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to return to work as a police officer.

"In the beginning I had no idea what was going to happen," he said. "I had no idea how I was going to recover. I had no idea what I would be capable of doing."

Now by telling his story, Sherwood hopes he can inspire other officers to never give up.

"Every situation is different. But get the help that you can," he said. "There’s a lot the body can do, as long as you have that determination to do it."