Motorcycle officer remains in hospital after Tuesday crash; Authorities: Still critical

By CONNOR HOLMES
published in the Cape Coral Daily Breeze 6/4/09

If tragedy reveals one's true colors, the blue and yellow striped Cape Coral police cruisers crowding the Lee Memorial Hospital parking lot reveal a lot about the city's officers, who are visiting critically injured motorcycle officer Damien Garcia around the clock.

Garcia's motorcycle collided with an SUV on rain-soaked Cultural Park Boulevard Tuesday afternoon. He was trauma alerted to the hospital.

Police Chief Rob Petrovich is among those visiting Garcia in his hospital room and praying for his health.

"We're not talking more than 24 hours since this occurred, so we're still in the onset of a terrible tragedy," he said. "I stayed here until about 2:30 in the morning and it seemed bleak at that time."

Garcia remains critical, but Petrovich said there was reason for relative optimism Wednesday afternoon.

"I came in this morning and we were a little more optimistic," he said. "There's hope. As long as there's hope and he's still alive, we need to keep him in our prayers and thoughts, but it's been a roller coaster."

Officers are keeping vigil with Garcia and members of the public, and other agencies have left messages and telephone calls in support of his recovery.

"Sometimes the little things can help along the way and make a difference," Petrovich said. "You want to come here, you want to be near it, you want to somehow feel you're making a difference."

Aside from his brothers and sisters in law enforcement, Garcia's family members came to see him as well.

Garcia has been an officer with the Cape Coral Police Department since February 2006.

"A good officer, well thought of by his peer group," Petrovich said. "I don't know what else to say about Damien other than the fact that he's in our prayers and we want him to get well again and come back."