TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - While Jamaine Hill remains locked up, Detective Jason Picking is starting his long road to recovery at the University of Michigan.
Detective Picking was in surgery Friday after being shot in the face by Hill, with several reconstructive surgeries scheduled in the upcoming weeks.
Then, he faces months of recovery.
Detective Picking will also carry around a reminder of that day with him for the rest of his life. The bullet, which shattered the left side of his face, will remain in his neck and not be removed.
When news of the shooting broke, Danielle Dressel went straight to the hospital to be by the side of Detective Picking's wife Kristen, making sure she got what she needed.
Danielle knew what Kristen needed because she was in her place ten years ago. Danielle Dressel is the widow of Detective Keith Dressel, who was killed in the line of duty.
Danielle said memories of that fateful day flooded back to her when she walked into the hospital.
"When we got to the hospital, everything was similar and it really hit me. When they were taking her back to see him, that's when it hit me. It was like reliving that nightmare all over again," she said.
But when she got word that an officer was shot, she knew she had to get to the hospital to be with Kristen because she was the only one who knew what Kristen was going through.
"She was a mess, shaking, crying," Danielle said. "She just wanted to see him and that was really hard, because my biggest regret was not being able to see Keith that night. I knew she needed that, so I kept saying to people 'I wish she could go back there.' It's what I didn't get, and I wanted it for her."
Kristen Picking is a TPD dispatcher. She was working the night Keith Dressel was killed, and she was working early Thursday morning when the words "an officer has been shot" were uttered again.
"When she got the call on the radio of an officer had been shot, she panicked immediately. She ran to her phone and Jason actually called her and said, 'I'm okay, but I've been shot,'" Danielle said.
The worst nightmare for any wife of a police officer, Danielle said she still lives with hers ten years after her husband was killed in the line of duty.
"I don't wish that on anyone, and I don't want her to have the same outcome as I did," Danielle said.
Danielle said she did her best to hold it together for Kristen at the hospital, then went home to grieve once again.
She said she hopes to find strength in helping the Picking family so they can feel the love that her family felt.
The Pickings have children, and Kristen will be away with her husband throughout all his surgeries and recovery.
Danielle is looking at what the family's needs are, then will start asking our community for help.
