By: Danielle Wallace
https://www.foxnews.com/person/w/danielle-wallace
A police officer in West Virginia who was shot in the face Wednesday while responding to a traffic complaint is not expected to recover and her organs will be donated, officials said.
Charleston, W.Va., police officer Cassie Johnson, 28, was responding to a traffic complaint on Garrison Avenue around 3 p.m. Wednesday when 38-year-old Joshua Phillips allegedly shot her in the face, Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford said at a press conference Wednesday evening.
She was hospitalized in critical condition and underwent surgery until it was determined her body could not long sustain life by itself and she would be taken off life support.
“With a heavy heart, I hate to say she is not going to be able to pull through this,” police Chief Tyke Hunt told reporters outside Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail. “She is still fighting but her body is unable to sustain life by itself.”
Hunt commended Johnson “for even in her passing still being a true hero.”
>>“As one final parting gift to continue to help others, she is an organ donor,” Hunt said. “The doctors are working with the family to determine eligibility and work out some donorship there.”
Investigators believe Johnson also fired at Phillips, who was sent to the hospital with gunshot wounds. An update on his condition was not available Wednesday evening. The incident remains under investigation by the sheriff’s office.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/west-virginia-charleston-police-officer-shot-in-the-face-will-not-survive