Police Officer Who Was Shot in the Head Returns to Work

A Long Beach police officer who was shot in the head last summer has returned to the department for a few hours each week as a detective.

Abel Dominguez, shot while writing a ticket in his patrol car Aug. 6, recently began working in the department’s domestic violence detail. He is accompanied by a physical therapist.

“I just wanted to get some normalcy back in my life and work would be a part of that,” Dominguez said Thursday.

Dominguez was shot three times. As he wrote a speeding ticket, two men walked up to his patrol car, and one of them shot him through a closed window. Bullet fragments entered the right side of his head, another bullet went through his arm and a third was deflected by a protective vest.

The father of three was in a coma for five days. His doctors did not give him much chance of surviving, but Dominguez surprised them with his recovery.

Today, Dominguez is not only talking and exercising, but is learning to walk again. He trades his wheelchair for a cane whenever someone is next to him to help. “My therapist wants me out of the wheelchair soon, so I’ve been using a cane more,” he said.

Eventually, Dominguez, who will be 32 on Tuesday, said he hopes to return to work full time. While doctors are hopeful he will fully recover, they are concerned that he may not regain full peripheral vision in his left eye. If that happens, the six-year veteran of the department said he will likely work as a detective and not as a street officer.

“Even though it’s not in a black and white, it’s still police work,” he said.

Dominguez has attributed his rapid healing to his religious faith and his ability to release the hate he felt for his attackers. Police have arrested two men and charged them with attempted murder. Their trial is pending.

Since the shooting, the Dominguez household has been a hub of activity Neighbors, friends and strangers have pitched in to fix up the family’s small North Long Beach home, adding a bedroom, a bathroom, remodeling the kitchen, replacing the roof and putting in temporary wheelchair ramps.

“We’ve been blessed,” Dominguez said.