The Marine recruiter who was shot in the leg during the July 16 terrorist attack in Chattanooga will accept a Purple Heart during a Jan. 26 ceremony, a spokesman for the U.S. Marine Corps confirmed Wednesday.
Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley was wounded when 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on a recruiting center on Lee Highway on July 16. Abdulazeez went on to attack the U.S. Naval and Marine Reserve Center on Amnicola Highway, where he killed four Marines and mortally wounded a U.S. Navy sailor.
On that day, Cheeley initially thought he’d been cut by glass and was still struggling to wrap his head around the reality even hours after a team of doctors confirmed the injury was a gunshot wound.
“I was still in disbelief until when I got home that night,” he said during an August interview. “I saw the hole in the back of my shorts. And then I was like, ‘OK, I guess I really did get shot.’ And that was that.”
Cheeley could not be reached for comment Wednesday, and the time and location of the Jan. 26 ceremony to give the award to Cheeley was not immediately available. The ceremony will take place just over six months after the attack.