Ambush Survivor: Faith & Family Get Me Through Dark Times

The Florence Police Officer who was shot and paralyzed during an ambush set up by two killers has a message you may want to hear.

Toby Bethel has 2 secrets that get him through the dark times. He says the first one is, “my wife has been by my side the whole time and if I start to get down she pretty much slaps me around and says you know get out of it it could always be worse.”

10 years ago, twin brothers Joel and Michael Stovall shot and killed Fremont County Deputy Jason Schwartz, then set up an ambush and shot and paralyzed Officer Toby Bethel.

“I was shot once in my left bicep, once in my right shoulder and twice in my spine with an AK-47,” he says. The shooting paralyzed him and sometimes he wishes he could forget that night. “All of us involved will never forget what happened, but for me I relive it everyday.”

He says his other secret to surviving is faith.

“My faith in God is strong and I depend on him to help me through my day, I don’t know how I would ever make it without God.” And he says it’s faith that helps him forgive the Stovalls.

The Stovall brothers are serving life in prison, no chance for parole.

Bethel says he suffered a medical setback, but hopes to soon be speaking again at churches, delivering his message of faith, family and forgiveness.