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Honoring Our Heroes
Carlos Strong
As officers who know and work with him confirm, nothing will stop Junior from recovering
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Strength, resilience, toughness, courage, optimism, guts, tenac- ity and even some obstinance coursed through Carlos Yanez Jr. as he rolled toward the Rush University Medical Center ER. Left eye socket blown out, bullets bouncing around his head and no feeling in his left arm and leg, Yanez noticed that one of the officers escort- ing his stretcher went to the academy with him.
“Hey, how you doing?” he exclaimed.
Strength, resilience, toughness, courage, optimism, guts, tenac- ity and even some obstinance are in his DNA. How else to explain the way Carlos Yanez Jr. is making a miracle recovery from the hor- rific shooting on Aug. 7 that killed his partner, Ella French?
Carlos Yanez Sr. heard the doctors say that the shots to the brain, eye, jaw and left arm could leave his son a vegetable, that he would never walk or even talk much again. But when he heard Junior say the name of his buddy from the academy, Senior knew better.
“When he looked at him, recognized him and could say his name, that was astonishing,” observed Carlos Sr., who retired from CPD in 2017 after serving 25 years and reaching mandatory retirement.
Less than three weeks after the incident, Junior had moved a fin- ger in his left hand. He has moved his toes. His eye socket has been reconstructed. One bullet is still lodged near his brain. Another still
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lies near his jaw. Doctors don’t want to go after them for fear of per- manent nerve damage.
Still, Junior is talking, joking, making sure Senior walked his beautiful boy CJ to the first day of school and promising his beloved Brenda that there’s so much life ahead.
“People thought he might never walk or chew or talk again,” Car- los Sr. reported. “But he’s going to prove them all wrong.”
On Aug. 17, the day thousands of Chicago Police Officers mus- tered for Ella’s visitation, the Department emailed a picture of Car- los in the hospital that lifted up the entire city. He sat up in his hos- pital bed and gave the thumbs up. He was smiling that same smile that any officer who has ever worked with Yanez knows.
“I spoke to him the other day, and I broke down in tears because of how well he is doing,” disclosed Joe Duplechin, who worked with Yanez on the Community Safety Team. “He was laughing at me for stuff, and he asked me if I needed help with anything. He’s asking if I need help. That boggled my mind, but that’s just the type of guy Carlos is. There’s nothing stopping him.”
Or, as Leon Howard, who worked with Yanez in 007, put it: “He can make it through this. He’s a strong dude.”
‘Heart of a lion’
Chatting up officers waiting in line at St. Rita of Cascia to pay re-
Third District Officer Audrey Duerson-Carter drew a portrait of fallen officer Ella French to give to her family at the funeral.