AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – The Richmond County deputy injured on the job earlier this month opened up about his experience and recovery process.

Deputy Keith Inman sat down with NewsChannel 6 to discuss how his remarkable story of recovery. He said those same community members he was serving and protecting when he was injured are the same ones who are helping him to recover.

“He made a choice and I did my job,” he said.

It started as a day like any other day, working on the Crime Suppression Team. But Deputy Inman’s encounter with Kaylon Smith on September 2 left him injured and the suspect with a felony charge.

“Not today.”

Those were Megan Inman’s exact words the moment she learned her husband and co-worker was run over and dragged by a suspect in a car during a traffic stop on Wrightsboro Road.

An affidavit reads the K9 unit discovered narcotics in the car. As Inman removed the drugs, the driver took off with him attached to the car, carrying his body until Inman hit two poles and fell off. He was in critical condition for a little more than a week.

“Once they got me to the point where I could wake up, I stayed in the ICU for some time after that,” he recalled of that time. “Once I got my mind back I got a positive attitude about things.”

Deputy Inman said he drew strength from the community’s prayers, donations and well wishes. All made his release from Doctors Hospital possible. And even K9 Jack, the partner whose nose aided in crime suppression that day, shared in the excitement.

Deputy Inman said, “That motivated me and that pushed me to get better, to try to stand up, to try to walk again. And even though I couldn’t do it on the first day, I tried again on the second day.”

At home, there is more support with four children and a new wife, recently married in June, who understands the job.

“You prepare for the worse, but hope for the best,” said Megan Inman, a Richmond County Sheriff’s Office Investigator.

Megan, who works in narcotics joins her husband in not changing any part of their service to the community.

“You don’t go out there and play hurt because you’re going to get hurt. It happened, I got injured, I got better and I go back out there and I do it the same way.”

Photojournalist: Gary Hipps