After 4 months in hospital, CHP officer struck by DUI suspect heads home
Officer David Gordon was met with cheers and raucous applause from more than 100 hospital workers and law enforcement brethren as he emerged from the main entrance of UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento on Friday afternoon.
The veteran California Highway Patrol officer, struck and seriously injured by a suspected DUI driver in Sutter County last October, was finally went home after four months at the hospital.
Accompanied by his wife and their two children, a walker-assisted Gordon, dressed in a blue T-shirt with an American flag on the front, climbed into a white limousine moments after turning and offering his crowd of supporters a humble but enthused “Thank you!”
Escorted by a CHP motorcycle officer, Gordon and his family road to their Yuba City home, driving beneath a much larger American flag propped up by the outstretched ladder of a fire engine as they left the hospital.
Gordon, a Yreka native who started his 13-year CHP career with the Santa Rosa office, suffered his injuries around in the early hours of Oct. 19, after he and a partner exited their patrol vehicle to direct traffic past malfunctioning train crossing gates on Highway 99, near Live Oak.
While the officers directed traffic, a dark gray SUV came speeding around a curve. His partner was able to jump out of the way, but Gordon couldn’t avoid the SUV. After hitting Gordon, the driver exited the vehicle and attempted to flee. The unharmed officer chased down the suspect, identified as Lucas Julian Nelson, who was later booked the Sutter County jail on charges of resisting arrest and DUI with great bodily injury. The CHP Yuba-Sutter office said Nelson was determined to have been driving under the influence of alcohol.
The crash shattered bones throughout Gordon’s body, requiring seven hours of surgery for compound breaks in his arms and legs, among other injuries. Two days after the incident, the CHP Yuba-Sutter office shared the officer’s identity and an update on his status with permission from his family. Authorities said Gordon was in “critical but stable condition” and “facing a long recovery” as he had also suffered multiple pelvic fractures, a broken jaw, broken shoulder blade, and had to have his spleen removed to treat internal bleeding.
Nelson, 21 at the time of his arrest and since released from jail on $50,000 bail, in November pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is due to appear in court next Wednesday for his next hearing, Sutter Superior Court records show.
Numerous fundraisers were held by a number of organizations to benefit Gordon and his family. The law enforcement veteran and his wife have two kids.
The CHP office, as well as one of those fundraising groups called Back the Badge Yuba Sutter, a nonprofit dedicated to advocacy and support for local law enforcement, have documented some of Gordon’s recovery process via social media: leaving the intensive care unit in early December standing on his feet under his own power in early January, before finally getting the doctor’s OK to go home in February.
Back the Badge in a post earlier this week that welcomed supporters to line the streets near Gordon’s Yuba City home early Friday afternoon to show support as he arrived.
This story was originally published February 21, 2020 at 1:34 PM.
