{"id":425454,"date":"2025-12-05T02:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/425454\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T02:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:22:10","slug":"philadelphia-school-officer-shot-11-times-shares-harrowing-account-of-attack-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/425454\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia school officer shot 11 times shares harrowing account of attack, survival"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The man accused of shooting a Philadelphia school safety officer 11 times<\/a> appeared in court as the officer shared his harrowing story of survival for the first time.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know why I’m still alive,” said Office Craig Romanczuk<\/a>, a School District of Philadelphia safety officer.<\/p>\n

The 68-year-old’s story of survival is so amazing, even he has a hard time understanding how he “made it.”<\/p>\n

“When I got shot, I was thinking, ‘I’m going to die,'” he said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE | Philadelphia school safety officer heads home after surviving being shot 11 times<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Officer Romanczuk spoke with a soft voice during his interview at the School District of Philadelphia’s<\/a> office in Spring Garden. It’s a result of one of his vocal cords being paralyzed when a bullet pierced his neck. Though his voice is soft, his will is strong after surviving being shot eleven times.<\/p>\n

The incident happened on June 30 near Penn’s Landing. Romanczuk was finishing up his shift when a person flagged him down, likely mistaking his vehicle for a Philadelphia Police Department cruiser. The person who stopped him frantically explained that they were the victim of road rage.<\/p>\n

As Romanczuk got out of his car to help, the suspected road rage driver showed up and immediately started firing at him.<\/p>\n

“As soon as I stepped out, I was shot three times,” Romanczuk said, recalling the attack with amazing clarity.<\/p>\n

“Somehow, I got the car in drive, and he shot me again. It was like nonstop,” he said of the multiple rounds that were fired by the shooter. “He was getting hit after hit. That even went in my mind. I said, ‘This guy is not missing.'”<\/p>\n

Eleven bullets pierced Romanczuk’s arms, torso, neck, and even his face.<\/p>\n

“You feel how strong (the bullet) is, it knocked all my teeth out,” he said, pointing to one side of his jaw.<\/p>\n

Even with all of the shots fired at him, Romanczuk, a retired Philadelphia police officer, somehow managed to put his car in drive. The vehicle eventually hit a tree.<\/p>\n

First responders rushed him to the hospital. The grandfather of one spent two months recovering before receiving a hero’s sendoff when he was discharged from Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in August.<\/p>\n

“Now I know that there’s a God because I could feel all my coworkers and family praying for me,” he said of his faith being strengthened by the attack.<\/p>\n

When police caught the suspect accused of shooting Romanczuk, they used the safety officer’s handcuffs to take the man into custody. That suspect remains behind bars, but a hearing today indicated he’s still eligible for bail.<\/p>\n

“I don’t understand that because I was I the hospital for two months,” said Romanczuk.<\/p>\n

Through it all, Officer Romanczuk is still grateful for the life he continues to live.<\/p>\n

“Life is good,” he said.<\/p>\n

Officer Romanczuk still has more surgeries ahead of him. He vows not just to fight for his recovery but also to fight for justice in his case.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The man accused of shooting a Philadelphia school safety officer 11 times appeared in court…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":425455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[198157,5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-425454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-198157","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115664581113879703","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}