Officer Kirk AldrichHARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -
The Harrisburg police officer who was shot in the line of duty Monday during a 9-hour standoff with an armed suspect at Hall Manor housing development is back at home and recovering.
Our Megan Healey sat down Tuesday evening with Officer Kirk Aldrich, a 20-year police veteran and member of the Dauphin County CERT team. He showed abc27 the wound to his left hand, where a round from the suspect's 12-gauge shotgun embedded between his middle and ring fingers.
"It's sore, it's stiff -- but it's still working," Aldrich said.
He described the harrowing moments after he realized he'd been shot.
"I was compromised," Aldrich said. "(The suspect) knew where I was and I was afraid he was going to shoot me again."
Aldrich said he side-crawled down the hill he was perched on, and took cover behind a small tree in order to assess his wound. He then tracked down an ambulance on the street.
"They asked me if I needed something and I said 'Well, yeah I got shot in the hand. Can I get a ride to the hospital?' And they were like 'Oh my God it's you -- ok'," he said.
Aldrich will need minor surgery to remove the bullet fragment from his hand, but said doctors believe he will make a full recovery. He hopes to be back on the job in 2-3 weeks.
The suspect in this case, 24-year-old Abel Roman of Philadelphia, began shooting at police as they tried to serve a warrant at a home in Row 13 of Hall Manor Monday afternoon. He was wanted for shooting a 23-year-old man several weeks ago. Roman turned the gun on himself shortly before midnight and was found deceased inside the residence, district attorney Ed Marsico announced early Tuesday morning.
