LOUISVILLE, KY (WDRB) -- April 8, 2009 started off with a stop at a gas station for Louisville Metro Police Officer Andrea Rice: "I was sitting and drinking my coffee that morning as I usually do and the run came out," said Rice.
The 911 call was reported as domestic violence on Ronwood Drive in Okolona. A report of a naked man beating a woman. "I was talking to the neighbors and getting a feel for what's going on when the gentleman came back out the door," Rice said.
The man wasn't only naked, Rice said he had blood pouring from his head. She immediately called for an ambulance, knowing he would need medical help. Rice also called for backup and within seconds the scene turned chaotic.
"He just had death in his eyes, he didn't care who died, he had death in his eyes," said Officer Rice.
She said the nude man started toward her. She told him to stop, but Rice said he just kept coming. She pulled out her taser.
"He moved his body to the side and I just watched those probes they just went right by him, directly by him," Rice detailed.
She said she pulled out her gun, telling him to stop or she was going to shoot –
"He's running and I'm standing at my car door and I mean he's running and I remember seeing these hands and that's the only thing I'm thinking, you know, he's like, I got you and I remember turning around and I fired my shots," Said Rice.
As she turned to put distance between her and the man now identified as then 24-year-old Joseph Starcher, she fell. "I had no motor skills, I had no control over anything. I watched my hand hit the concrete and I'm just watching it and I had no control over my gun and when my hand smacked on that concrete the gun just came out and rolled," Rice said.
"At this point he is coming for me, he is looking dead at me. He had his hands fixed like this as you know I'm going to get you so my mind I'm thinking we're getting ready to go to a ground fight," said Rice.
She managed to kick him and jump back to her feet.
"I look to see where he is, I don't really see him, then so I think my gun, I need to get my gun. When I turn to go run to get my gun, he was right over top of it, he had the gun at that point," said Rice.
Knowing her only defense now was taking cover behind her car, she took off running for her life and fell again. "And as I'm down, I feel that first bullet. I felt it and I'm laying there like I've been shot and you know at that time I'm just like, this is so surreal. It's like I've been shot so I'm laying there and I feel another burning sensation and I say he just shot me again, I've been shot again so I said, where is he?" said Rice.
She turns around to find herself face to face with her worst fear: "He is standing directly over top of me with this look just firing off rounds, he's just firing them off and I'm like, my god he is going to kill me."
But Rice said her survival instinct kicked in and she refused to let Starcher take her life. "I jumped up after that third one, I'm like if I don't move he is going to kill me."
Officer Rice took off running again.
"I picked up my radio and I said 1030, 1030 which is officer needs help and I said I've been shot I've been shot," Rice said.
Officers arrived in seconds, but Rice says Starcher still has her in his sights.
"He's looking at me like, you're not dead, and he never takes his eyes off of me and he starts crawling across the car," said Rice.
Her fellow officers take over and get Starcher in custody and that's when reality kicks in. She finally realizes what's happened. "I start praying and I said, God, Your will be done. I said, I'm OK with whatever happens, I'm OK, then I said I just want you to take care of my husband and my boys 'cause my husband had lost his mother and sister and it hurt me to think you know now he's going to lose his wife," said Rice.
She was rushed to the hospital and spent the next year recuperating. She will always carry around a reminder of the day she nearly died. "I literally have metal, I have metal from my knee coming all the way up to my thigh."
Rice still has two bullets in her stomach. She has returned to police work, spending her days working in the training office as an LMPD recruiter. She has been asked to share her story of survival with recruits. Even though she has 18 years on the force, she says her job has just begun.
"It wasn't time for me to go yet and for some reason this happened to me and it is something else He wants me to do, there's something He wants me to do," Rice Said.
It was revealed during trial that Joseph Starcher was high on mushrooms when he attacked Officer Rice. He was found guilty in June of attempting to murder the officer and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
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