Special friendship forged in the wake of July 7th police ambush

Thousands met in different areas of Dallas on Saturday to honor the five men who died two years ago on July7th.

One of those events was a fundraiser and candlelight vigil in the design district. Proceeds from the events will benefit the Brotherhood for the Fallen, in memory of the slain officers.

FOX 4 spoke with one victim, Shetamia Taylor. She was shot that night and formed an unlikely bond with an officer she will never forget.

Taylor calls Dallas Police Detective Greg Weatherford a godsend, but Weatherford doesn't care much for accolades.

“I don't like being called a hero, I really don't,” he said.

Their friendship started on a Downtown Dallas street on July 7th, 2016. Taylor was attending a rally against police brutality with her four sons when they heard gunshots. 

“After being shot and grabbing my son and going to the ground with him, the thing going through my mind was I did not know where my other three sons were,” said Taylor.

Taylor was shot in the leg, her sons had already taken off running during the chaos and gunfire, but Detective Weatherford was there.

“As I came around the corner, I saw her in the street, lying in the street and I came up to her,” he said.

“My reaction was definitely peace, peace. That's just the God's honest truth. Greg came and he knelt beside my son and I and he spoke real calmly, sternly, and reassuringly that it was OK, And I say this all the time, I knew it was. I felt it,” said Taylor.

Another officer put a tourniquet on Taylor. Their little group huddled down on the street as bullets kept flying for what felt to them like forever. When there was a lull in the gunfire, they made their move.

“We put her and her son in the back seat of that squad car, and a DART officer drove her and her son to the hospital. And that was the last time I saw her that night,” said Detective Weatherford.

Months later, after Taylor was released from the hospital and still recovering in a wheelchair, the two found each other through mutual friends, and reunited at Taylor’s home.

“I walked up to the house, she opened the door and at that moment it was a good feeling of peace because I knew she was OK, really really OK,” he said.

A lifelong bond was formed after that. A bright spot, they call it, out of tragedy.

“What one person did may have tainted the expectations of that rally, but also in that same night, it brought a city together and still two years later to the day, Dallas is closer than it has been before,” said Taylor.

Taylor was eventually reunited with her sons who are all okay. She says her 14-year-old who was with her that night wants to be a police officer when he grows up.