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'Not a matter of endurance. It's tolerance': Officer regaining strength after being shot 9 times

Officer Steven Kotlewski is overcoming hurdles in his recovery from being shot nine times while responding to a domestic disturbance in November.

Literally, hurdles - foot-high black-and-yellow bars, set on the floor in the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab DayRehabCenter in Arlington Heights.

With a safety belt around his waist attached to a weight stack by a pulley, the Bensenville police officer concentrated Tuesday on stepping over the hurdles - forward, backward, side to side - without the use of his cane. A therapist stood behind him, a light grip on the safety belt.

It's grueling work for the 38-year-old Kotlewski. And after about a half-hour of therapy, he took a break to lie down, until the pain - it worsens the longer he is standing - subsided enough to resume his work.

"It's not a matter of endurance," Kotlewski said, as he rested from his exercises. "It's tolerance."

And so goes another day on Kotlewski's journey to recovery from the Nov. 5 shooting, when eight bullets pierced his legs, an arm, his back and torso. A ninth lodged in his protective vest.

He was released from a rehabilitation center in mid-December to stay with his in-laws, whose house could accommodate his wheelchair and had a first-floor bathroom.

But now, he is home - home home, the one where he lives with his wife, three children and dog.

It was made possible by Home Depot, which remodeled a first-floor powder room into a fully accessible bathroom, including a sit-down granite shower.

"I thought I was going to get bottom-of-the-shelf. But it's high-quality stuff," Kotlewski marveled.

Home Depot donated a remodeling of a first-floor half-bathroom, including installing a sit-in shower, at the home of injured Bensenville police Officer Steven Kotlewski. That made it possible for him to move back in with his family. Courtesy of Ellie Murphy

The accessibility accommodations are important because Kotlewski is still limited in what he can do. He wears a brace on his lower right leg, uses a cane when walking, can't turn his left hand over and is unsteady on his feet.

He sleeps in a hospital-style bed in a first-floor room. And he has a lot of pain.

At least three hours a day, five days a week, Kotlewski works to regain his strength, balance and skills at the AbilityLab.

The gunshot to his back is particularly vexing - it broke vertebrae and caused nerve damage. Kotlewski said a doctor told him that his leg muscles are receiving only about 30% of the signals his brain sends.

He is due to undergo electrical conduction testing soon to determine if it is matter of nerves and muscles taking time to heal, or if there is something physically blocking the signal transmission.

  The surgery scars on his legs hint at the gunshot wounds Bensenville police officer Steven Kotlewski suffered while responding to a domestic disturbance in November. Here, he works on balance and strength at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in Arlington Heights. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com

As for his left arm - which has a one-foot scar running down the lower portion - he said doctors may affix a brace with a knob, to gradually turn it.

Kotlewski is grateful to his father- and mother-in-law, Dave and Catherine Stachura, for the time they took him in.

"I like hanging out with my in-laws. He (Dave Stachura) missed having another man in the house," Kotlewski joked. (Stachura has four daughters.)

They lived just three lots away from the Kotlewskis, so he was able to see his daughter and two sons.

Kotlewski said he would absolutely return to being a police officer - but it's too early to tell if he will recover enough to meet the required physical standards.

He has seen the body-camera video of his shooting but has not attended or watched any of the shooting suspect's court hearings. He expects he may be called to testify as to the authenticity of the video.

He also is in counseling, to deal with the emotional and psychological effects of the shooting.

  Bensenville police Officer Steven Kotlewski, who was shot nine times in the line of duty while responding to a Nov. 5 domestic disturbance, kisses his son Jack, 1, as he receives a homecoming from relatives and community members at his in-laws' Roselle home after being released from a rehabilitation in December. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com, 2021

Being around his children helps.

"They kind of push me out (of a funk). If they are around I don't feel so crippled," Kotlewski said.

Case update

Kiante J. Tyler

The man accused of shooting Kotlewski was found mentally fit to stand trial at a hearing in March. Kiante J. Tyler is next due to appear in DuPage County court April 27.

Thank a dispatcher

While front-line police officers like Kotlewski are rightly praised for their service, the law enforcement community is taking time this week to honor its behind-the-scenes heroes.

National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, which runs April 11-17, honors those who receive emergency calls and dispatch first responders, often serving as calming influences and even providing lifesaving instructions while they're on the way.

"If you talked to any police officer, firefighter or paramedic, I am sure they would all say that we rely on our telecommunicators every day," Lake Zurich Police Chief Steve Husak told us.

Husak said telecommunicators at the regional dispatch center based out of the Lake Zurich Police Department handled 19,280 911 calls and 59,223 administrative calls for six police and two fire departments in 2020.

Murder sentence upheld

A Carpentersville man serving a 39-year prison term for recruiting two men to help him fatally beat and stab his ex-girlfriend's new beau in 2017 doesn't deserve a lower sentence, a state appeals court has ruled.

Carlos F. Lopez

Carlos F. Lopez had appealed the punishment, arguing that the judge who sentenced him for the murder of Bayron Cruz didn't consider evidence of his potential for rehabilitation, including that he has two young daughters and a steady employment history.

In denying the appeal, the Illinois 2nd District Appellate Court recounted the violence Lopez organized.

"Defendant planned the incident, brought a knife, and used it to repeatedly stab the victim," Justice Liam C. Brennan wrote in the unanimous decision. "The evidence established that the victim suffered multiple stab and incise wounds to his chest, back, buttocks, abdomen, arm, and wrist. The victim was bruised and beaten, with a shoeprint on his face. He was left to bleed out and die. Under these facts, the 39-year sentence was well within the trial court's discretion."

The appeals court also rejected Lopez's claim that his attorney's trial strategy amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel, ruling that the evidence against him was so overwhelming that he would have been found guilty regardless.

Authorities say Lopez, then 29, was so jealous of his ex-girlfriend's relationship with Cruz, her boss at an Elgin manufacturing plant, that he and two men he paid viciously attacked him outside the workplace.

Congratulations

DuPage County Chief Judge Kenneth L. Popejoy announced Monday that 22 people graduated recently from the court's Mental Illness Court Alternative Program. It was the largest problem-solving-court graduation class in the court's history, according to a news release.

The audience included relatives, friends, prosecutors, defense attorneys and police officers, including many of the officers who had arrested the graduates. The program is designed to help participants improve their lives and avoid committing crimes, by engaging in mental health and other treatment and community-based support systems.

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