SALT LAKE CITY — Two months after a shooting sent him to the hospital in critical condition, a Salt Lake man is back home with a new lease on life and a new appreciation for law enforcement.
“I can’t believe I’m alive right now,” said Nicholas, AKA Nicco, Lanzalaca as he sat in a wheelchair in the kitchen.
Being back home and alive, is something Nicco had only dreamed of.
“Not very many people get a second chance,” said Lanzalaca.
On June 20, nearly two months to the day, Nicco was shot seven times.
His family said he was at a birthday party in West Valley City, while helping to clean up, he was called outside, there was a brief altercation and then the shots were fired.
“I remember when I first got shot, then it was pretty much like a blackout,” Lanzalaca said. “I just woke up in the hospital.”
His survival was a miracle. But if you ask Nicco, the strangest part is the man pushing his wheelchair and helping him to stand and sit – a uniformed officer.
“I was in the gang banging life,” said Lanzalaca. “It’s just like a rival thing pretty much, like cops stick with cops, Crips stick with Crips, Bloods stick with Bloods.”
That officer, Detective Garlick with West Valley City Police, was one of the responding officers.
“When I got called, I thought I was going to be investigating a homicide,” Garlick said. “I didn’t think he was going to make it.”
Having sustained gunshot wounds to the abdomen, pelvis, knee, elbow, groin, wrist and arm, Nicco was only given a 10-percent chance of survival.
But as the weeks passed, a friendship grew between the Lanzalaca family and Detective Garlick, and Nicco grew stronger.
“Me and his mom, we stayed in touch every day,” Garlick said. “We talked a lot about his progress and his setbacks, his injuries and her feelings and emotions towards it.”
Garlick said he felt a kind of ‘support’ from the family. So, when Lanzalaca’s mother told him she was concerned about making the entrance to their home wheelchair accessible, he didn’t think twice.
“I’d never built a ramp before,” Garlick said. “I built it and it fit, luckily.”
Now, having been released from the hospital, Lanzalaca and Garlick are meeting for the first time.
“Just seeing someone, you know, actually care and give their love and their time just to build that ramp… and all so I could see my family, it means so much,” said Lanzalaca. “It’s amazing, it’s an honor to have someone like that in your life.”
They may be from ‘different sides’ but they are seeing each other clearly.
“We’re all human, we’re all the same,” Garlick said.
“There’s really officers out there that really care,” Lanzalaca said. “He did it with his heart, so that means a lot to me, I’ll keep him around for sure.”
And while Wednesday was the first time they met in person, to each other, they’re family.
“I’ve already been invited to his birthday party,” Garlick said as the two laughed. “It’s one of those, I guess ‘relationships,’ that you can see lasting.”
“It’s awesome, it was an honor, thank you so much, I appreciate you,” Lanzalaca said to Garlick before giving him a hug.
Nicco still has a long road to recovery, but said the entire ordeal has made him want to ‘do things different,’ possibly pursuing a career as a social worker.
