Community rallies around police officer, Wash. native shot in Texas

On Tuesday, Yakima native and Washington State University graduate Matt Pearce was shot multiple times while working as a Fort Worth, Texas, police officer.

Before he was shot, Pearce was planning to repair his mother’s fence damaged by recent storms.

After Pearce was hospitalized in critical condition, community members stepped up to make the repairs.

"It's times like this when a community bands together to take care of one of our own," the Fort Worth Police Officers Association wrote on Facebook Friday morning.  "We give our sincere thanks to Home Depot, Wedgwood Baptist Church and many others for their kindness and generosity."

Pearce, an officer in Fort Worth since 2009, was shot seven times, according to a support page. One of the bullets hit his liver and diaphragm, according to the page, and Pearce also was hit in the cheek, arm, chest and leg.

Still, he tried to help the medics attending to him, explaining how to help.

“He’s a fighter through and through,” Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald told a Texas radio station Friday.

Police are hopeful that Pearce will recover, and said doctors were hopeful after Pearce made it through his first night in critical condition.

More than $63,400 has been raised through a GoFundMe account to help Pearce, a father of two.

One of the suspects involved, a 43-year-old felon, was fatally shot by police. A handgun was found by his body. The felon’s 20-year-old son, who also was involved in the incident, has been charged with attempted murder, evading arrest and unlawful carrying of a rifle, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Cox Media Group