Editor Note: This story is graphic and may be difficult for some people to read.

Drew Stokes was shot in the line of duty. He survived and joined us at our studios recently to tell his story on camera and join us on episodes of both Law Enforcement Today and Behind the Uniforms, which can be found here.

The entire reason we launched LET Unity was to give a voice to officers like Drew who have never been able to tell their stories. It’s a tragic story – but also one filled with hope. With lessons. And with a dose of reality that America needs.

Proceeds from LET Unity memberships go directly back into telling the stories of warriors like Drew. We hope you’ll consider signing up. The mainstream media isn’t giving them a platform. Social media is censoring them. Help us to help them.

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It was beautiful afternoon on Tuesday September 26, 2017. I was shopping at a Publix grocery store just outside of Jacksonville, FL preparing for a flight to Puerto Rico the next day.

Hurricane Maria had just devastated the island, I made one trip already a couple days before and we brought survivors back with us to Jacksonville so they could escape the mass destruction. On that flight I met a young girl, probably around six years old and her grandmother. They were scared and hungry.

The aircraft, a 1960’s era maritime patrol aircraft known as a P-3 Orion is loud, cold, and dark inside. It was obvious they were uncomfortable, we comforted them as best as possible with food and drink, then offered the beds in the back of the airplane for their comfort during four hour ride to Jacksonville.

I was scheduled to fly on September 27, 2019, my intentions were to have subsistence available to passengers that could be prepared with the equipment in the airplane. I never made it back to the office.

While walking to my truck I was near the first two handicapped spaces on the left side of the one-way isle, the only vehicle traffic should be approaching me, not from behind. I was about twenty five feet away from my truck when I hear the piercing scream of an insane 18-year-old kid behind me.

“I FU*#ING HATE COPS.”

I immediately drop my groceries and reach for my weapon, I work in aviation and we mostly wear shoulder a holster, this was a cross-draw and I immediately learned why this set-up is a terrible idea.

While reaching across my body bullet number one impacted my rib cage under my right armpit, the bullet broke two ribs traveled through my liver and stopped within two millimeter of my T-12 vertebrae.

I was turning my body towards the threat, as trained. While turning the second bullet impacted my right buttock, traveling through my colon internally and stopped in my left pelvis, next to my bladder.

Bullet number three went in the top of my right leg and stopped in my pelvis, bullet number four was in and out of my left leg, and bullet number five went in and out of my left arm. The gun was a stolen Glock 19 and all bullets were hollow points.

At that time I only knew I was shot, I had no idea of the extent of my injuries. I only knew the impact was burning hot, staggeringly powerful, and I was in significant of pain. I saw the last two or three muzzle blast, the shooter was a young white male and he sped off in a black BMW Z3.

I was on the ground and I was able to get my weapon pointed down range and start scanning for targets. The first wound I saw was the two holes in my left forearm, the meat was hanging out of both holes and there was a lot of blood.

As I’m scanning for a target I notice the blood running beside me like a river, I know I am in bad shape and I needed to start making some decisions in a hurry. Bystanders started flocking to me telling me the shooter had killed himself and started helping me.

For a brief moment I told myself that this could really be the end, but I got that thought out of my head and began a self-assessment. I knew I needed to start setting small goals and achieving those goals if I was going to have a chance.

I said out loud:

“Drew, wiggle those toes, wiggle the damn toes”.

When I felt my toes move in my boots it was a huge morale boost which I desperately needed. With all the chaos around me, my thinking was clear as a bell.

I directed someone to call 911 and ues the term officer down and gave them our location. I gave another man the number to my office and told him to contact the Command Duty Officer and relay the events that had just happened. I told the others:

“Keep the blood in the container, keep the blood in the container.”

It was a term I had learned in my agency’s survival school which I guest instruct and had just completed as a student about six weeks before. I needed them to keep in the blood inside of me.

While processing the information, I remembered the equation PMA+98.6=life.

Positive Mental Attitude plus normal body temperature equals life. I knew I had the body temperature because it was about ninety degrees ambient temperature and the asphalt temperature was boiling hot on my skin.

Did you know that Law Enforcement Today has a private new home for those who support emergency responders and veterans? It’s called LET Unity, and it’s where we share the untold stories of those patriotic Americans. Every penny gets reinvested into giving these heroes a voice. Check it out today.

I made the decision that I was not going to die I that parking lot, that day. I knew eventually it would be out of my hands, but I was going to fight as hard as I could until there was no blood left in my body.

The next goal was to hear sirens approaching, a few minutes later the blaring sirens of a 2017 Dodge Charger from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office closing on my position was music to my ears. The cavalry, my brothers and sister, were on the way, and they were going to save my life. I knew they would do everything they could to save me.

Two patrol cars arrive on-scene, I never get a visual on the deputy running towards me. I simply start screaming:

“I’M A COP, I’M A COP, I’M A COP”.

The reason is I work for a federal agency and our uniforms are brown, the local sheriffs wear green. I had a gun in my hand and did not want him to see the gun and shoot me. I felt his hand on my back and hear calm voice say:

“I’m Jacob Hawkins from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, you’re golden, and you’re going to be fine”.

Deputy Hawkins and others placed a tourniquet around my leg and my left arm. Between the gun shots and tourniquets, I have had enough pain at this point, but knew I needed to keep the will to live until the Fire Station 26 paramedics arrived.

When the paramedics arrived on-scene they rolled me over on my back and I saw the concern in their faces. Deputy Hawkins later told me I was completely grey, all the color had left my body. As I was loaded into the ambulance my will to live was still strong, but I knew my body was running out of blood, on the ride to Orange Park Medical Center (OPMC) I blacked out several times.

I remember arriving at the trauma center and seeing my supervisor and another co-worker, their encouragement and kind words boosted my will to live, I remember nothing after this short chat until I wake-up a couple weeks later. The will for to live was taken out of my hands and placed into the hands of the trauma staff at OPMC.

During the next several hours I wavered between life and death, I received nineteen trauma units of blood which was pour from my liver faster than in could be put into my body.

My wife, Amanda, was prepped by the lead trauma surgeon Dr. Elias Tsirakoglou that I was probably not going to make it through surgery, but he was going to try. Dr. Tsirakoglou was carrying my will to live and was not giving up on his abilities to save me, after multiple fail attempts to sew up my liver failed my time of death was near, he just needed a couple more attempts.

Those attempts were successful, the hands of God guided the young trauma surgeon that shared my will to live and I received another chance at life. Because of the will to live, I am living on borrowed time and I need to spread the word as far and wide as I can to never give up.

The will to live is hard, sometimes we feel that death is the easiest way out of whatever situation we may find ourselves in. Pain hits humans in different ways, sometimes it can be in physical discomfort, other times in can be in paralyzing psychological pain from a career full of horrible images, physical confrontations, and losses of brothers and sisters which we form an unbreakable bond.

These situations finding the will to live is hard, dark, and hopeless. If you find yourself with these feelings and emotions, please reach out to organizations that are here to help, not judge.

Your family, friends, brothers and sisters towing the line need you to be there for them as well. I know what it feels like to be on the brink of death, I know what it feels like to have your family and friends by your side when you wake-up.

The will to live can feel like a cinderblock of burden, it is okay to share the cinderblock to others so they can help you carry your burden. Someday you may have to help carry their cinderblock as well. This important story taught to me by an Army veteran named Earl Granville whom I have not yet met, a cinderblock helped him through rough times after the loss of his brother.

Never give up.

-Drew Stokes

They shut down Live PD and COPS. They went after Paw Patrol. Law Enforcement Today is stepping in to fill that void.

This editorial is brought to you by Law Enforcement Today’s National Spokesman Kyle S. Reyes.

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I feel like not a single day goes by where I’m not shaking my head… wondering what the heck happened to my country. Trying to figure out how the loudest, rudest, nastiest people in our country suddenly got corporate America and millions of citizens to absolutely pander to them.

Let’s face it – we’ve been dealing with this “politically correct” garbage for years. We’ve all been walking on eggshells, trying desperately not to offend people.

And guess what? It wasn’t good enough. So why are we even going to bother trying?

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve learned that the following things apparently make me a racist:

Drinking milk

Playing chess

Listening to country music

Drinking American beer

Eating red meat

Being Christian

Being a white male

Voting for President Trump

Having an American flag in our yard

Having a thin blue line bumper sticker on my car

Here’s the thing. I ABSOLUTELY believe we should judge people. But I don’t believe we should judge them based on what they look like – we should judge them on how they act.

If they are jerks, they should be called out. If they are criminals, they should be arrested. If they are corrupt politicians, they should be removed from office.

But we’re dealing with a country that’s so upside down that we are told you shouldn’t judge someone by the color of their skin (agreed, for the record), but you should judge them based on their job (police officers).

I watched a guy literally almost killed because he said “white lives matter” (true) by white people holding up “black lives matter” signs (which is also true). And yet we’re supposed to just ignore the hypocrisy of that, because if we don’t, we’re apparently racist.

Yeah, process that – and you’ll realize I’m right. It’s dumb.

Now we’ve got Live PD and COPS taken off the air, because God-forbid they show the dumpster fire that police officers deal with every single day.

I’m sick of it. And I know you are as well.

So we’re stepping up to fill the void – because, quite frankly, someone has to. And it seems as if far too many people these days lack the intestinal fortitude to do anything that SOMEONE in this world might take offense to.

You’ve probably heard about LET Unity.

We launched it last year to bring civilians and civil servants together. To tell the stories behind the uniforms. And, quite frankly, to show you the stories and videos that were regularly being shut down on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

We’re doubling down.





If companies are going to be too afraid to show their support for law enforcement, we’ll do it for them. And we’ll continue to bring together a community of supporters.

Most of our writers are either active or retired law enforcement. We have contributors who were shot, stabbed and run over in the line of duty… along with their loved ones and supporters.

The revenue Law Enforcement Today generates helps to support them and helps to continue to give a voice to officers who are being attacked and silenced across America.

Over the coming months, we’ll be launching a new series of video content showing the actual challenges that law enforcement officers around the country face. We are unapologetically pro-law enforcement and we are looking for others who feel the same as us… but can’t be as vocal.

If you’re wondering the kind of stories we feature… here’s a look at some of what you’ve missed – and some of what’s to come.

The first officer in the door at the Pulse nightclub shooting.

Emergency responders from the Parkland shooting.

The bomb squad that responded to the Aurora movie theater massacre.

Survivors of the Dallas five killings.

The first Marine Guard hostage in the Iran crisis.

The CIA agent who started a counter human trafficking company.

SWAT teams.

Sniper schools.

World War II veterans.

And so, so much more.

The membership is less than the cost of two coffees a month, and those who sign up for an annual membership will get some surprise bonuses in the mail. We decided to charge a nominal fee so we could take the proceeds and reinvest them into capturing more of these stories.

Yes – it was free to watch Live PD and COPS. And look at how that turned out once the networks caved to police haters.

The revenue we make helps provide for officers and their families and helps bring a TRUE voice about what’s happening in America.

We have a problem in society. Censorship has created an existential threat to democracy. But even worse is the risk we run that some of these incredible stories of patriotism, hope, faith and our Sheepdogs would be lost.

We hope you’ll join us in this journey, knowing that your membership is going to give a voice to those who have been silenced for so long.

Click here to sign up.

We are battling over the very soul of our country. We are fighting for our families. And we’re on the brink of losing America.

Think about this for a minute.

While you were fighting over who among you was more “woke” and which company to boycott … we lost our country.

While you were arguing with coworkers over who would leave the country first if Trump/Biden were elected, the “American Dream” perished.

Don’t believe me? Then perhaps ALL is lost. And I can prove it all to you through the eyes of a child.