Laura Glesby photo
Officer Chad Curry at Thursday's Board of Alders meeting.
After one bullet grazed his ear and another lodged in his shoulder, Officer Chad Curry got up to chase the man who fired at him.
The Board of Alders honored that perseverance and service in an official citation Thursday evening, just over a month after a shooting injured the police officer.
Curry, who’s been a police officer for nearly a decade, was shot on Oct. 7 while responding to a car crash at Blatchley Avenue and Chapel Street.
When a man involved in the crash began to flee the scene, Curry yelled out at him from within his police cruiser — and the man fired at him in response.
Curry was hit by two bullets — at least once while he was still inside the car — and ran after the shooter, firing back.
A suspect was arrested later that day. (Click on the video below to watch dashcam footage from the incident.)
Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes presents the citation.
“How many of you would jump out of a car after being shot?” asked Quinnipiac Meadows Alder and retired former city police Capt. Gerald Antunes as he introduced Curry to a room full of alders, journalists, police officers, and Curry’s family at City Hall Thursday evening.
“He wanted to stop a dangerous person before he could do any more harm,” Antunes said.
“It’s because of you and your actions that the New Haven community is much safer,” said Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers.
About 50 friends, family members, and colleagues filled the Board of Alders’ chambers in support of Curry.
Family and police give Curry a standing ovation as news broadcasters record the moment.
“Police officers, they put their lives at risk to protect the community,” said Dakota Curry, one of Curry’s sisters. “My brother did a heroic thing.”
Curry himself — a self-professed man of few words — had just one thing to say when he accepted the honor: “Thank you to my coworkers, my friends and family in New Haven.”
Thursday marked the second time in less than a month that the Board of Alders has officially honored a city police officer. In early October, the local legislature presented the family of the late Officer Michael Hinton with a citation soon after Hinton passed away from cancer.