MEMPHIS, TN - A Memphis police officer shot in the line of duty is back on the job.
Officer Charles Wren's close call came in July when faced with a man armed with a shotgun.
He's alive and back on the street thanks to good training and one solid bullet proof vest.
“We salute your heroic courage and valor in the line of duty,” Ed Hinchey of Safariland said.
For Officer Charles Wren that just might be an understatement.
On July 2nd he and few officers encountered Vincent Ingram. The 43-year-old man walking around Getwell and Barron with a shotgun. Wren tried to talk him down. It didn't work.
“Basically I was shot with a buckshot shotgun. Once in the head, in the face, arms and leg,” Wren said.
Most of the pellets struck Wren's torso. Thanks to the Safariland bullet proof vest he was wearing, not one made it through.
“Anything in the torso all it takes is one of those pellets working it's way to the spine or to an artery that they can't get to in time to stop the bleeding and it can end tragically,” Hinchey said.
Safariland makes body armor and firearm accessories. Hinchey says their armor saved more than a thousand cops from death or serious injury.
Wren makes number 1,808. And it wasn't just the vest that did its job. Right after Ingram pulled the trigger, Wren's training kicked in. He fired back at the gunman as did other officers.
“We train so much that it commits it to muscle memory. When they get in a stressful situation like that they will go back to their training without even thinking about it,” Lt. Michael Jones said.
But eager to push heroics aside, Officer Wren didn't have much to say.
“I'm just happy to be back, with my team. That's about it,” Wren said
A bullet proof saved another Memphis cop earlier this year. As for Vincent Ingram he's facing four counts of Attempted Murder.
