{"id":196875,"date":"2026-03-18T20:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196875\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T20:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:40:07","slug":"port-st-lucie-police-sgt-erik-levasseur-awarded-purple-heart-3-months-after-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196875\/","title":{"rendered":"Port St. Lucie police Sgt. Erik Levasseur awarded Purple Heart 3 months after shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">A Port St. Lucie police sergeant wounded in the line of duty was awarded a Purple Heart this afternoon, as part of the Port St. Lucie Police Department&#8217;s quarterly ceremony. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;I have a long road ahead of me,&#8221; Sgt. Erik Levasseur said after the awards ceremony. He added that he&#8217;s &#8220;very eager&#8221; to get back to work, and that receiving this Purple Heart was &#8220;overwhelming.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WATCH: Sgt. Levasseur speaks about recovery<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Sgt. Levasseur was <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/treasure-coast\/region-st-lucie-county\/port-st-lucie\/port-st-lucie-police-officer-shot-transported-to-hospital\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">shot in the face<\/a> while responding to a call in the 11000 block of Southwest Lake Park Drive on Dec. 1. The 27-year veteran had multiple surgeries to repair facial injuries, had a wired jaw and was relying on a tracheotomy, according to police. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He also had two surgeries to <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/treasure-coast\/region-st-lucie-county\/port-st-lucie\/pslpd-sergeant-continues-to-recover-in-icu-after-surgeries-to-remove-bullet-fragments-currently-has-no-vision\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">remove bullet fragments<\/a> from his eyes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WATCH:Sergeant released from hospital after shooting<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In early January, more than a month after the shooting, Sgt. Levasseur was <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/treasure-coast\/region-st-lucie-county\/port-st-lucie\/port-st-lucie-police-sgt-erik-levasseur-released-from-the-hospital-37-days-after-he-was-shot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">released from the hospital<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;When we use the word miraculous, there\u2019s no other way to explain it,&#8221; Police Chief Leo Niemczyk said of Levasseur&#8217;s recovery. He said in January that Levasseur was reporting no vision in his right eye and shadowy vision in his left eye.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Port St. Lucie police sergeant wounded in the line of duty was awarded a Purple Heart this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-196875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}