An NYPD sergeant who arrested two men this week at the same Brooklyn housing project where he was shot in the head last year said "it felt so good to be back out there" on duty.
"I felt the way I used to feel when we took a gun off the street," Sgt. Kevin Brennan said of the arrest on Tuesday. "I felt great."
Brennan had just finished walking prosecutors through the scene in Bushwick where he was shot last January when his old partner, Officer Michael Burbridge, spotted two men wanted for armed robbery.
Brennan says he and Burbridge, who were preparing for the gunman's upcoming trial, approached the men and noticed one of them was hiding something and shielding his body against a fence.
Brennan says he searched the man and found a loaded handgun in his waistband. The suspects were arrested on robbery and weapons charges.
"I didn't think of my incident, I just wanted to apprehend him," said Brennan. "I haven't been out on the streets for a long time since my incident, so it felt good to be back out there."
Brennan was shot in the head at close range on Jan. 31, 2012, while responding to a report of gunshots fired at the housing project.
The 29-year-old sergeant says that while he's doing more investigations and less street patrolling these days, retiring "really never crossed my mind" because he enjoys the job.
The gunman who shot Brennan was arrested on a charge of attempted murder.
Brennan still has vision damage in his left eye from the shooting and gets headaches occasionally, but he says physical therapy helped him make substantial progress.
Brennan says he feels lucky to have survived the bullet, which struck him at the base of his skull.
"My daughter was five weeks old, so I'm happy to be around and be her father," he said.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly on Thursday called him a "terrific police officer."
"To see him recover the way he has and then to make an arrest, he's truly inspirational," Kelly said.
