MARYLAND OFFICER RETURNS AFTER INJURY THAT COST HIM HIS LEFT LEG

Losing a leg on duty might sour some people on a career in law enforcement.

But Pieter Lucas, a 23-year-old Howard County auxiliary officer struck by a sport utility vehicle while directing traffic at a crash scene in 2005, has returned to his post, 17 months after doctors amputated his left leg above the knee.

He returned with his hope of becoming a sworn officer intact. “I’m going to give it a shot,” Lucas said Friday morning, his first day back.

If his resume is any measure of his resolve, he has more than a shot.

Have you ever juggled responsibilities as a full-time student, volunteer firefighter, auxiliary police officer and a part-time employee for the Howard County Department of Parks and Recreation? Better, have you ever inspired a state law?

“He’s a driven individual,” said Capt. John McKissick, head of the department’s special operations unit, which oversees the auxiliary program. “It was a tragic event that would have ended a lot of people’s apirations — but not Pieter."

Lucas speaks of his injury as if it were an inconvenience, no more a bother than a head cold. “It’s something you got to deal with,” said Lucas, sitting in a desk chair in jeans and a sweatshirt, his right leg casually draped over his prosthetic left one. It’s his second leg. He wore the first one for about nine months. It was a heavy, awkward thing, meant to coax his body into a life balanced on a prosthetic limb, he said.