The Trenton Times published the following article on October 11, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Mercer County PBAs honor five officers, including Trenton detectives injured in fatal shootout

By Alex Zdan/The Times 
on October 11, 2013 at 10:27 PM

HAMILTON — Detective James Letts could feel the burning behind his breastbone right away.

Adrenaline still charging seconds after the brief and brutal gunfight on Hobart Avenue in Trenton, Letts couldn’t tell that a bullet had gone through his side, up through his body, and into his chest cavity. But his shoulders felt sore, like he had just finished a heavy workout.

Letts brought his left hand up to his right shoulder to check it. The third time he touched the shoulder, his hand came away with blood on it, and he knew he had been shot.

A domestic violence suspect was shot in the street and Letts’ fellow Trenton cop Detective Edgar Rios was somewhere nearby, separated in the chaos. Letts grabbed his radio to request backup, then could hear Rios, whom he could not see, on the radio calling for a Code 3 ambulance.

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘How does he know I’m shot?’” Letts said. “Then it kicked in: he’s shot.”

Nearly two months after the Aug. 15 shooting that both men survived but accused gunman Eric McNeil, 23, did not, Letts made his first public appearance since the shooting tonight at a benefit for the Policemen’s Benevolent Association Survivor & Welfare Fund hosted by the Mercer County Conference of PBAs.