By Andria Simmons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GWINNET COUNTY, Ga. — The desk jobs not withstanding, two Gwinnett police officers feel lucky to be working again after being wounded in January.
Sgt. Michael P. McKeithan and Cpl. William M. Hoch of the Gwinnett County Police Department went back to work within the past week, although they are assigned to “light duty” while they continue to recover.
“We definitely had an angel,” Hoch said. “Somebody was watching over us.”
In their first public appearance since the shooting, the pair accepted a check and gift cards totaling about $3,000 from the Gwinnett Bar Association following a brief, informal ceremony Tuesday morning at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center in Lawrenceville.
The money was raised to aid officers and their families in their recovery, Assistant District Attorney Sabrina Nizam said.
Hoch and McKeithan were shot Jan. 3 when they went to serve arrest warrants on a Sugar Hill man for allegedly fleeing from a sobriety checkpoint in Suwanee several days earlier.
The officers said they anticipated that William “Bill” Caram, 37, might try to flee, given his behavior at the traffic stop. They positioned three officers outside of the house Caram shared with roommates on White Cedar Terrace to intercept him if necessary.
The officers were stunned, however, when Caram opened fire on them from behind his bedroom door. They said Caram had no criminal history.
“We knew he would flee,” McKeithan said. “We didn’t know he would shoot.”
Hoch was hit first, receiving a gunshot wound to the upper part of his left leg. McKeithan was shot in the abdomen and wrist, and also received a grazing wound to his leg.
“I felt the hit,” Mc- Keithan recalled. “It didn’t hurt, but I felt like somebody punched me.”
Hoch tumbled down the stairs and out of the line of fire. However, McKeithan staggered backward, unable to reach the stairs without passing the gunman’s doorway again and risking further injury.
Three officers who had been stationed outside — Jim Huth, Ross Hancock and Cole Crosby — ran upstairs and risked their own lives to rescue McKeithan.
Huth engaged in a brief gun battle with Caram, shooting the gunman in the left arm and driving him back into the bedroom as the officers made their escape, McKeithan said.
Caram eventually barricaded himself inside his bedroom and engaged police in a 14-hour standoff. The standoff ended when SWAT officers entered the home to find him deceased in a bedroom closet. An autopsy concluded Caram died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Hoch, 42, was hospitalized for five days after the shooting. He will have one last surgery in the fall to help repair damaged muscle tissue in his thigh.
McKeithan’s injuries were more extensive, requiring a three-week hospital stay. One bullet pierced the 49-year-old’s spleen and intestines while another caused severe nerve damage to his right hand. He still experiences numbness in three fingers and has difficulty gripping objects.
Hoch, a husband and father of three adult children, said a “just don’t quit” mentality keeps him motivated as he struggles to bounce back. McKeithan credits his wife of 22 years and his 21-year-old son for giving him “a will to live and a reason to survive.”
Nizam called the two officers “true living heroes” after everything they’ve endured, but the officers deflected the praise.
“We’re just glad to be back to work,” McKeithan said.
Copyright 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution