Responding to an emergency call early dawn of November 29, 1997, police officer Jose Cepeda thought it was a false alarm. While his partner scanned Wendy’s immediate surroundings, he proceeded to go inside the establishment all by himself. Then it happened so quickly, he saw a crow bar and wondered if he could walk again.<\/p>\n
“Now, I can learn from my mistakes,” he told Saipan Tribune. The mistake almost took his “normal” life, inflicted pain to his family and brought anger to his colleagues.<\/p>\n
After he was hit by the crowbar, he felt he couldn’t lift a finger. Before the day was over, he was rushed to Hawaii and spent two weeks at the Intensive Care Unit.<\/p>\n
During the flight to Honolulu, he was in and out of consciousness. Masses were heard to pray for his speedy recovery. His own prayer was for him to walk again.<\/p>\n
“I was scared that I may not be able to walk for the rest of my life. I cannot move my left arm and leg,” he said.<\/p>\n
After ICU, he spent another two weeks at the Rehabilitation Center of the Pacific and started his preparation for normal life.<\/p>\n
He was still limping when he arrived on Saipan on Christmas eve and continued his therapy at the Commonwealth Health Center. By March, he went back to work.<\/p>\n
His successful fight to return to normalcy was considered by many as a miracle.<\/p>\n
His attending physician at CHC said during a trial that Cepeda was a lucky guy. When he was rushed to the hospital, he had an injury right on top of the section of his brain which controls the motor function.<\/p>\n
“The doctor told me that I had a good memory,” he said. While at the ICU, he had a recurring recollection of what happened at Wendy’s, but he was spared to remember his aggressor.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure who did it. I only saw the crowbar,” he said.<\/p>\n
After a jury trial, the government failed to deliver him justice. The court only heard circumstantial evidences.<\/p>\n
Although nobody answered to the crime, Cepeda went on with his daily routine free of rancor and hatred.<\/p>\n
“One good thing about the incident is that I can only remember the crowbar,” he said.<\/p>\n
It would have helped the court prosecute the guilty party if he caught a glimpse of his aggressor. But his missing the opportunity to identify him facilitated his own personal battle to go back to normal.<\/p>\n
He received a letter of apology from one of the convicted parties, but it never occurred to him that he should confront them.<\/p>\n
With his growing three boys – Albert, Henry and Jessie James – he doesn’t rule out the possibility that one of them will follow his act. He remembered his own admiration of his father, who was also a cop. But he would be quick to tell aspirants to think twice before joining the police.<\/p>\n
Today, he continues his routine at the Criminal Investigation office.<\/p>\n
“This is my job and I enjoy it,” as he answers to emergency calls on crimes against individuals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Responding to an emergency call early dawn of November 29, 1997, police officer Jose Cepeda thought it was a false alarm. While his partner scanned Wendy’s immediate surroundings, he proceeded to go inside the establishment all by himself. Then it happened so quickly, he saw a crow bar and wondered if he could walk again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}