LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Maj. Aubrey Gregory, one of two Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers shot last week whille responding to protests, spoke out publicly Wednesday morning, the first time he’s done so since he was injured.

During the press conference, Gregory announced he returned to light duty Monday and will be behind a desk for a while; however, he is expected to make a full recovery. Gregory said he spoke with officer Robinson Desroches, the other officer injured, on Tuesday.

“He understands too that he was very lucky, and that it could have been much worse, and he’s grateful that it wasn’t,” Gregory said. 

Desroches was shot in the abdomen and required surgery but is now up and moving around, according to Gregory.

Gregory, who was shot in the hip and released the same night, called it “disheartening” to be shot after the work LMPD did to prepare for protests following the Breonna Taylor decision.

“To be shot by a single person, I don’t hold the group responsible for what another person did, but I hold that person responsible, and for that to happen after all the work we’ve gone through, and all the opportunities and chances we’ve put in place to make sure all first amendment rights are protected … to have that to be shattered like that, it’s disheartening,” Gregory said.

He also expressed concerns over violence against police officers.

“It just seems like recently, that that risk of violence, or at least that threat of violence, that the willingness to profess openly in public the desire to harm, kill, hurt the police and their families has really ratcheted up,” Gregory said. “It’s no longer quietly spoken amongst people, it’s out in the public for consumption.”

Gregory said that violence and hate do nothing to move the city forward.

“All of us, no matter the color of our skin, no matter our race, religion, or creed, no matter where we live, where we came from, all of us are in this together. All of us,” he said. “And if we can’t come together to find solutions, then we’re not going anywhere. And hate and violence progresses nothing.”

At the end of the press conference, Gregory choked up while reflecting on seeing his kids for the first time after being shot. Gregory also noted that his return to work Monday was difficult for his wife. 

“There will come a time where the anger and the frustration at the person who shot me subsides, and we’ll have to deal with the fear and anxiety of me being shot,” he said.

26-year-old Larynzo Johnson, the suspect accused of shooting Gregory and Desroches, was arrested and charged with 14 counts of wanton endangerment to a police officer and two counts of first-degree assault on a police officer. He is being held on $1 million bond and is due to appear in court Oct. 5.