FORT WORTH, Texas — The list of the injuries Fort Worth Police Officer Matt Brazeal sustained in June 2020 is so extensive, it’s almost easier to enumerate the bones he didn’t break than the ones he did.
A suspect being pursued by police rammed into him on the side of a Fort Worth road, nearly killing the officer.
A Tarrant County nonprofit called Assist the Officer helped him and his now-wife make ends meet as he recovered.
“When you lose that money, you're not expecting to lose that income. It helps out a lot,” he said.
Sgt. Anthony White and now-retired Officer Hector Melendez founded the Fort Worth organization in 2016 following the line-of-duty death of a fellow FWPD officer.
“It's really an indescribable feeling to be able to help a family,” White said.
The group raises funds for injured officers – and for the families of fallen ones. Similar nonprofits with the same name have operations in Houston and Dallas. White and Melendez founded the Fort Worth Chapter.
“We hope we never have to use it, because we don't want an officer injured or killed in the line of duty,” Melendez said. “But unfortunately, it's just the nature of what happens.”
FWPD says a drunk driver drove the wrong way up an exit ramp, hit and killed Sgt. Billy Randolph as he worked a wreck on I-35W early Monday morning.
Brazeal said hearing about officers who die in the line of duty affects him differently since his own near-death experience on the job.
“I kind of ask myself, you know, well I made it, why didn't somebody else make it?” he said.
Now he’s working with Assist the Officer – the same foundation that helped him in the midst of his recovery – to raise money for Officer Randolph’s family.
“This is just a little something to help them to get through the hard times until they can get back on their feet,” Melendez said of the help the organization provides families and injured officers.
The group, which has close ties to the Fort Worth Police Association, is accepting donations on its website.