COLORADO SPRINGS — The Colorado Springs Police Foundation of Colorado Springs has announced a fundraiser to benefit former officer Cem Duzel.

Duzel was shot and critically injured while responding to a shots fired call near Boulder Street and Bonfoy Avenue – just east of downtown – in August of 2018.

Karrar Al Khammasi was later convicted for the crime and sentenced to 45 years.

>> Tap here for more details on the shooting

But Duzel’s life was changed forever. The shooting left him with a traumatic brain injury that required months in the hospital and then a year in a rehabilitation hospital in Denver. After that, Duzel went back to his family home in New York where he continued physical and speech therapies. But he wasn’t able to return to his department.

“When Cem just first moved out here, when everything happened and he moved from New York, and he moved out here for a reason,” Duzel’s fiancee Layne Pachael said at a press conference Wednesday. “He had his very best friends, he had just this tight-knit group of police officers. So, he always had that wanting to stay here.”

And CSPD cared, too. In 2019, they honored Duzel with the Purple Heart and Medal of Honor for his courage and heroism in stopping an active threat in a neighborhood before the suspect could harm innocent community members.

“This guy is a hero, he stopped a threat that night, he stopped the potential of other individuals being hurt or killed by his courageous contact with an armed suspect,” Howard Black, a spokesperson for the 4th Judicial District has said.

And now Duzel has big plans – he and his fiancee are planning an August wedding. The couple has chosen to make Colorado Springs their home.

At a press conference held Wednesday, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said, “I want to be among the very first to say welcome home to Cem and Layne… and for choosing to live in colorado springs. We look forward to having you in our community for years to come.”

The Police Foundation of Colorado Springs is creating a fundraising effort to show the couple just how much the community appreciates his sacrifice by helping with the cost of their wedding and honeymoon.

100% of all donations will go to the couple. There is a tab on PFCS website for these donations and the mailing address is 10 Lake Circle, Colorado Springs, CO 80906.

If a donation is made by check, please write “Cem and Layne” on the memo line.