Gov. Greg Abbott is pictured. | AP Photo Texas governor severely burned last week

As Thursday’s events unfolded in Dallas, the state’s governor was already in great personal pain.

It was revealed Sunday that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had sustained second- and third-degree burns hours before the attack on Dallas law enforcement. Abbott was on vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, when he was burned by hot water on both legs below the knees and on both feet, according to the Austin American-Statesman.


Abbott has been paralyzed from the waist down since 1984 when a tree limb fell on him one day as he jogged, crushing his spine.

The governor’s office didn’t want to pull attention away from the events unfolding in Dallas, where Micah Johnson had gunned down five white police officers following peaceful protests, so a statement on Abbott’s condition was withheld.

“We didn’t want to distract from what was happening in Dallas,” Abbott’s communications director Matt Hirsch told the Statesman. “We still don’t want to.”

His office expects Abbott’s schedule to be lightened over the next few weeks, a result of which could be him having to miss next week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

