Dallas Police Sr. Cpl. Ed Lujan was dying.
On November 9, 2015, while working off duty at a Dallas club, he and other officers were escorting four men, who had been kicked out of the club, when Eduardo Gonzalez-Rios got into his SUV, turned it towards Lujan and ran him over.
The initial hit slammed Lujan’s head into the windshield. Gonzalez-Rios put the SUV in reverse and ran over Lujan again and then shifted into drive and ran over him a third time.
The injuries were severe. Lujan suffered a traumatic head wound, where you could actually see his skull. He had a lacerated tongue, broken neck and back, broken ribs, broken sternum, shattered hips, ankles and legs.
As he lay on the pavement he could hear the sound of sirens but he knew he was dying.
“I felt the euphoria of my life and soul leaving my body,” he said. “So it wasn’t a feeling of sadness or joy. It was more like tranquility. So I knew what was going on. I’m dying.”
He looked over to the side of the road and saw his father standing over him.
His dad had been dead for eight years.
“He’s looking down at me and he says, ‘Son, get up,'” he said. “And I said, ‘Dad, I can’t get up.’ And then I will never forget this, he puts his hands on his knees and he bends down towards me and he’s looking down at my eye and he says, ‘Son, you have to get up because you have a family that loves you and needs you.'”
Lujan says he felt a sense of peace and says standing next to his father he saw God.
“God stood right next to my dad and I knew at that moment he was in heaven,” he said. “I took a deep breath there and I felt my life and soul re-enter my body and I remember waking up in the arms of the fire fighters on the way to Parkland.”
The experience changed his life.
“It’s made me a better person, a better human being because I know how short life can be,” he said.
Everyone, including the doctors, said that his job as a police officer was over but it wasn’t.
Today, Lujan is back to work and his mission is tell his story to help others dealing with pain, suffering and the loss of someone they love.
