The Sidebar

An Army sergeant today described his shock at seeing a fellow officer whom he’d served under in Iraq get shot and seriously wounded on the front lawn of his Colorado Springs condo.

 

At first, Sgt. William “Smoke” Jacobs, 26, said he didn’t believe it when Lt. Zachary Albert Szody yelled out, “I’m shot” after a gunman in a passing car opened fire on them.

 

“Bull,” Jacobs said he replied.

 

“No, I’m really hit,” Szody said. Then Jacobs saw the blood coming from where one bullet had hit Szody in the back of his knee.

 

“I really didn’t believe it was happening,” Jacobs testified during the trial of Fort Carson Pfc. Jomar Dioniso Falu-Vives, 25, who is accused of firing his AK-47 at Szody in the May 26, 2008 drive-by shooting.

 

Falu-Vives, also an Iraq War veteran, also is accused of first-degree murder in another drive-by shooting that left two people dead 12 days later.

 

Szody, now a captain, told the jury the shooting has altered his life. One of the two bullets hit his left pelvis.

 

“The hip was completely shattered,” the 34-year-old officer said, wearing his olive drab uniform. At first, doctors were unable to operate because, “there were bullet fragments and bone fragments floating around in there,” he said.

 

He remained in the hospital for nearly three weeks. He couldn’t walk for nearly three months. He was not able to go with his unit back to Iraq. His military career path has changed.

 

“The stuff that I wanted to do, I can no longer do,” he said.

 

He can no longer run, which had been his favorite past time. Within 3 to 10 years, doctors say he’ll need a surgically-replaced hip.

 

The two men had been at a Memorial Day weekend housewarming for a fellow officer that night.

 

Jacobs said he was inebriated, so Szody drove him the short distance home. They were standing outside Jacobs’ condo at Flintshire Street and Monterey Road talking about their upcoming deployment to Iraq when a white station wagon approached.

 

Neither man saw the gunman or the weapon, but Jacobs said he saw the muzzle flash coming from the right rear passenger window.

 

Szody said his military training told him the shots came from a high-caliber automatic weapon.

 

“It wasn’t a handgun,” he said. “It was something with a little more power to it.”

 

Szody used his cellphone to call another officer to get help while Jacobs ripped open the lieutentant’s pants leg and pressed down on the bullet wound on the back of his knee.

 

He waited until another officer arrived before dashing into his condo to get a first-aid kit. He watched as another car slowed and drove away.

 

“I had no idea why these people were shooting at us,” he recalled. “If anything else was going to happen I was going to be there with him.”

 

Later after paramedics rushed Szody to Memorial Hospital, Jacobs described his frustration with Colorado Springs police, whom he felt did not believe his account of what had just happened.

 

The frustration led to a verbal confrontation and police handcuffed and arrested Jacobs on charge of interference. The charge – a municipal ordinance violation – was later dismissed.

 

For more on this story, stay tuned to the Sidebar blog at Gazette.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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