SWAT member who lost lower leg after being run over by fire truck at Nuggets parade stages comeback

DENVER (AP) — The final fire truck rolled through the streets of Denver for the Nuggets' celebratory parade a year ago, carrying Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and the franchise's first NBA championship trophy.

The truck suddenly stopped following a right turn around a corner. An instant later, chaos.

On the concrete, amid the noise and celebrations, police Sgt. Justin Dodge found himself fighting for his life, his left foot run over by the front wheel of the 80,000-pound vehicle.

There, in the street, he made a vow — that if the tourniquets held and if rescue workers got him to the hospital in time aboard an all-terrain vehicle, he would stage an epic comeback.

He has, too, after eight surgeries including one that amputated his leg inches below the knee. A year after the June 15 accident, he is back full-time on the job as a SWAT team supervisor, has become a motivational speaker and the subject of a PBS documentary and is a phone call away for anyone going through a similar difficult time.

“That day was pretty rough for me,” Dodge said in a series of interviews with The Associated Press. “But because of the things that are happening and the positive story that I’m trying to create, and that people are seeing, I’m having the ability to hopefully impact people in a way that I never would have been able to impact them before.”

His new motto is, “Crush the Hard.”

Really, though, he has always operated in that manner. That's how he became an elite goaltender as a kid, including a stint with the St. Paul Vulcans of the United States Hockey League. That's how he rose to the ranks of second-degree black belt in the martial arts discipline of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

And that's how he returned to full duties with the SWAT team four days before the one-year anniversary of the accident.

“People root for the underdog,” said the 51-year-old Dodge, who has been with the Denver Police Department for 27 years, including 18 with SWAT. “Based on my situation, I feel like they're cheering for me.”

An estimated 750,000 fans had assembled along the parade route — and at Civic Center Park — to celebrate the Nuggets beating Miami and bringing home the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time.

Dodge provided security by walking along with the last fire truck — the one carrying Jokic and Murray, along with team owner Stan Kroenke and president Josh Kroenke.

Nearing the end of the route, the truck turned and the tire caught Dodge's foot. It dragged him under the wheel but he was able to maneuver in a way — he credits Brazilian jiu-jitsu — that it didn't roll over his knee or hip.

All around there were shouts for the truck to brake. But the noise was so loud.

The truck stopped on his leg before backing up. It lasted only seconds "but felt like an eternity,” Dodge said.

Fellow first responders sprang into action. Two tourniquets were applied. Given the crowded streets, they didn’t wait for an ambulance but instead loaded him onto an ATV and raced him to Denver Health.

Immediately, he went into surgery in an effort to save both him and his lower leg.

Three weeks after the accident, his lower leg was amputated.

As he healed, many visitors stopped by the hospital to wish him well, including Murray. Another was the driver of the fire truck. They've become good friends.

“There's never been a day that I just sat there and went, ‘Why me?’" Dodge said. "Not one day. Because you can’t look back.”

Former Nuggets director of performance Steve Hess reached out to offer his help to Dodge. Hess, who runs his own fitness company, is known for his infectious energy.

It was the perfect pairing. They designed a blueprint to take Dodge from a wheelchair to back to his line of work using his prosthetic leg.

“Justin looks at everything as an opportunity,” Hess said. “He’s limitless, because he doesn’t buy into any restrictions."

There were tough days. Simple tasks early on, like taking a shower or scooting his way up stairs, were so draining.

“Sometimes, I would just literally lay my head on the floor (at the top of the stairs) and just openly cry with my kids surrounding me,” Dodge said.

Those moments only fueled him.

“He'd come to workouts hyped and I'd be like, ‘You do know that I’m about to kick your (butt),'” Hess said with a laugh. “There's no off switch.”

That's what it took to get him back to SWAT, where he's part of a team called in for hostage rescues or situations involving active shooters. To get him into elite SWAT shape, Hess had Dodge climbing over walls and performing heavy squat lifts and pushups.

When Dodge tested to return to his unit, he was stronger than before during an exercise in which he ran 400 meters with 25-pound weights in each hand and while wearing a gas mask.

“Nothing slows him down," Hess said. "He rises above it.”

These days, Dodge does numerous speaking engagements with an emphasis on resiliency and wellness. He makes time to talk to anyone who reaches out and is going through a similar experience. One of the questions he always asks: What are they doing today to be better for tomorrow?

“With the truck still on top of me, I was already starting my mental rehab,” Dodge said. “I knew my course of life had changed in an instant. But I told myself, ‘If I live to get to the hospital, I’m going to make an epic comeback.'"

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Denver Police Department Sgt. Justin Dodge stands for a portrait Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in south Denver. Dodge lost his left leg below the knee last June while providing security along the parade route for the NBA champion Denver Nuggets. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Police Department Sgt. Justin Dodge takes part in a training exercise Friday, June 7, 2024, in a former athletic club now vacant in Lone Tree, Colo. Dodge, a SWAT team supervisor who was providing security along the parade route for the NBA champion Denver Nuggets last June, lost his left leg below the knee when the firetruck carrying guard Jamal Murray and center Nikola Jokic ran over his left ankle. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Police Department Sgt. Justin Dodge hurries up the stairs on his prosthetic leg during a training exercise Friday, June 7, 2024, in a former athletic club now vacant in Lone Tree, Colo. Dodge, a SWAT team supervisor who lost his left leg below the knee after being run over by a firetruck during the Denver Nuggets' championship parade last June, is back on the job and makes it his mission to inspire others. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Police Department Sgt. Justin Dodge surveys his gear Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in south Denver. Dodge lost his left leg below the knee when a firetruck carrying members of the NBA champion Denver Nuggets during a parade rolled over the officer's left ankle. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Police Department Sgt. Justin Dodge stands for a portrait Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in south Denver. Dodge lost his left leg below the knee when he was struck by a firetruck carrying members of the NBA champion Denver Nuggets as the officer was providing security along the parade route for winning the title last June. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Police Department Sgt. Justin Dodge takes part in a training exercise Friday, June 7, 2024, in a former athletic club nw vacant in Lone Tree, Colo. Dodge lost his left leg below the knee when his left ankle was run over by the firetruck carrying NBA champion Denver Nuggets last June. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) — Hurricane Beryl ripped off doors, windows and roofs in homes across the southeastern Caribbean on Monday after making landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada as the earliest Category 4 storm in the Atlantic, fueled by its record warm waters.

Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said late Monday that one person had died and he could not yet say if there were others because authorities had not been able to assess the situation on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where there were initial reports of major damage but communications were largely down.

“We do hope there aren’t any other fatalities or any injuries,” he said. “But bear in mind the challenge we have in Carriacou and Petite Martinique.” Mitchel added that the government will send people first thing Tuesday morning to evaluate the situation on the islands.

Streets from St. Lucia island south to Grenada were strewn with shoes, trees, downed power lines and other debris scattered by winds up to 150 mph (240 kph). The hurricane snapped banana trees in half and left cows lying dead in green pastures, with homes made of tin and plywood tilting precariously nearby.

“Right now, I’m real heartbroken,” said Vichelle Clark King as she surveyed her damaged shop in the Barbadian capital of Bridgetown that was filled with sand and water. Beryl was still swiping the southeast Caribbean on Monday evening as it pushed into the Caribbean Sea on a track heading just south of Jamaica and toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula by late Thursday as a Category 1 storm.

Late Monday, Beryl's winds increased to 155 mph (250 kph), on the brink of Category 5 strength.

Beryl was about 575 miles (925 kilometers) east-southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic and was moving west-northwest at 21 mph (33 kph), with hurricane conditions possible in Jamaica by Wednesday.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, and a tropical storm warning for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

“Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as its moves over the eastern Caribbean,” the National Hurricane Center said.

The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.

On Monday afternoon, officials received “reports of devastation” from Carriacou and surrounding islands, said Terence Walters, Grenada’s national disaster coordinator. Mitchell said he would travel to Carriacou as soon as it’s safe, noting there’s been an “extensive” storm surge.

Grenada officials had to evacuate patients to a lower floor after hospital roof was damaged, he said.

“There is the likelihood of even greater damage,” he told reporters. “We have no choice but to continue to pray.”

In Barbados, Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information, said drones — which are faster than crews fanning across the island — would assess damage once Beryl passes.

Beryl strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours — a feat accomplished only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history, and with Sept. 1 as the previous earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.

It also was the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record, besting Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 storm on July 8, 2005.

Beryl amassed its strength from record warm waters that are hotter now than they would be at the peak of hurricane season in September, said hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry.

Beryl also marked the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, breaking a record set in 1933, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.

On Sunday night, Beryl formed a new eye, or center, something that usually weakens a storm slightly as it grows larger in area. Experts say it’s now back to strengthening.

Jaswinderpal Parmar of Fresno, California, who was among the thousands who traveled to Barbados for Saturday’s Twenty20 World Cup cricket final, said he and his family were now stuck there with scores of other fans, their flights canceled on Sunday.

He said by phone that it's the first time he has experienced a hurricane — he and his family have been praying, as well as taking calls from concerned friends and family as far away as India.

“We couldn’t sleep last night,” Parmar said.

Even as Beryl advanced in the Caribbean, government officials warned about a cluster of thunderstorms mimicking its path that have a 70% chance of becoming a tropical depression.

“There’s always a concern when you have back-to-back storms,” Lowry said. “If two storms move over the same area or nearby, the first storm weakens the infrastructure, so the secondary system doesn’t need to be as strong to have serious impacts.”

Beryl is the second named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeast Mexico and killed four people.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season was likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast called for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press videographer Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent contributed to this report.

A fisherman pushes a boat damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A fisherman jumps from a vessel damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Fishermen look out at vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Houses damaged by Hurricane Beryl in Kingstown, Srt. Vincent and the Grenadines, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

A fisherman looks at fishing vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A fisherman looks out at vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Fisherman Hamilton Cosmos looks at vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Sylvia Small, right, waits for police approval to enter the pier to check her boat's damages due to Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Fishing vessels lie damaged after Hurricane Beryl passed through the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A tree lies on the roof of a house in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, after Hurricane Beryl on Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Fishing vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl sit upended at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Fishermen pull a boat damaged by Hurricane Beryl back to the dock at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A fisherman looks at fishing vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A tree slumps after being uprooted by Hurricane Beryl in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Hurricane Beryl's winds batter Carlisle Bay in Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Waves batter a pier during the pass of Hurricane Beryl in Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Day breaks over a pier as Hurricane Beryl passes through Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Waves batter palm trees as Hurricane Beryl passes through Hastings, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Rick Burn takes photos of damages caused by Hurricane Beryl in Hastings, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Youths take photos as Hurricane Beryl passes through Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Members of the Barbados Defence Force clean up a street after Hurricane Beryl passed through Oistins, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A Barbados Defence Force member cleans up a street after Hurricane Beryl passed through Oistins, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A bird flies away from a palm tree after Hurricane Beryl passed through Oistins, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Hurricane Beryl floods a street in Hastings, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Boats lie capsized in a flooded street after Hurricane Beryl passed through St. Lawrence, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

The sea floods the street after Hurricane Beryl passed through St. Lawrence, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A man takes photos after Hurricane Beryl passed through Oistins, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Wind blows past a house whose roof blew away during Hurricane Beryl in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Donna Charles, a hotel cook, watches as Hurricane Beryl passes through Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A surfer braves the waves in Carlisle Bay as Hurricane Beryl passes through Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Waves batter a pier as Hurricane Beryl passes through Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A resident carries wood to cover his house's windows in preparation for Hurricane Beryl, in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People disassemble a beach bar's awning in preparation for Hurricane Beryl, in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People walk off the beach after attending a religious gathering in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it approaches the southeast Caribbean. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Sailboats line up to enter a marina ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Beryl in Speightstown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Hurricane Beryl's winds batter Carlisle Bay in Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Hurricane Beryl's winds batter Carlisle Bay in Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)