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Man shot during Pott County Jail inmate escape receives special gift from community

An Omaha corrections officer who was shot while off the job is now recovering.

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By
Maria Thompson
SARPY COUNTY, NE — An Omaha corrections officer who was shot while off the job is now recovering.

For the first time since the attack he is speaking out.

It's been a little more than a month since an inmate from the Pottawattamie County Jail escaped and shot three people.

One of whom was at the intersection of 16th and Big Lake Road and says the community has been a huge help in his healing.

"I'm doing real good now," said Corporal Jerry Brittain. One month ago the Omaha Corrections Officer and his girlfriend, Kelsey Bridges, did not know if those words would ever be spoken.

Bridges said, "I didn't know if he was going to make it."

Brittain and Bridges were on their way to breakfast when an inmate escaped from Pottawattamie County Jail. He shot two deputies.

One was Deputy Mark Burbridge who died that day. The inmate then made his way to Brittain's pickup truck.

Brittain said, "I just told her we were going to get robbed. She laid down on the one side and I laid down on top of her, and tried to make a right hand turn and he made it up to the truck before we got out of there."

Bridges said, "I looked back and saw him standing there, and it was a loud pop and glass was everywhere."

The inmate, Wesley Correa Carmenaty, shot Brittain in the neck. Miraculously, Brittain survived.

Brittain said, "The bullet is still in my tongue so it still swells up. I get a little bit of a speech impediment, but besides that it's okay."

He says he spent five days in the hospital.

"I never thought it would've happened to us. You hear it all the time that an officer was hurt, but I never thought it would happen to us," said Bridges.

Now, other Nebraska corrections officers from the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #88, and the community, have decided to help Brittain by selling American flags with a silver line to represent corrections officers.

"I've been to a lot of places and no one comes together like we do in the event of a tragedy," Brittain said.

With the support, Brittain and Bridges say each day gets a little bit easier.

"From here on out we'll just look at the good."

Brittain says he's not going back to work at least until August.

The group is still accepting flag orders through July 1.

The money will go directly to Jerry Brittain to help pay for medical bills.

To order one, send an email to necorrectionslodge@gmail.com.

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