TYLER, Texas — **EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on February 24, 2015. It has been update to reflect the 15-year anniversary of the shooting.
It started out as a normal Thursday 15 years ago, that is, until gunshots rang out in downtown Tyler.
On February, 24, 2005, David Arroyo, 43, used an AK-47 to open fire outside the Smith County courthouse, killing his ex-wife, wounding his son and killing another bystander.
The east side of the courthouse was riddled with bullet holes, many of which were fired at law enforcement officers who rushed out of the courthouse to try and stop Arroyo.
"He has an automatic weapon," a woman frantically told a 911 operator that day. "He is at the back door shooting at these people!"
"He's killing somebody right now," a man said in another 911 call.
Law enforcement kicked into high gear while witnesses took cover, praying it would end.
"I didn't know if he was going to come this way, or what he was doing or what his intentions were," an eye-witness said at the time. "It was scary."
"He turned his rifle toward the courthouse and he began spraying the courthouse," another witness said.
Watching from a window was a young deputy named Sherman Dollison.
"I was in Judge Rodgers' court right here," Dollison said in a 2015 interview with CBS19 as he recounted the events that day. "There's some bullet holes on the second floor." Dollison said, pointing toward the exterior of the courthouse.
Some of those bullets were meant for Dollison. Security camera video later revealed the moment he decided to run outside and do something.
"When I exited the door, he was over here [to my right] and that's when I engaged him," Dollison said in a 2015 interview with CBS19.
After all this time, he said it was still crystal clear.
Dollison was face-to-face with Arroyo. Hindsight tells us Arroyo was upset about an upcoming child support hearing. Before it started, he shot and killed his wife, Mirabel Estrada, wounded his son, David Jr., and went on a rampage.
"I just remember kind of like a plaid jacket," Dollison said in a 2015 interview with CBS19. "I remember the rifle. He was still shooting and so I engaged him at that time. I shot several times at him."
At some point Arroyo shot and killed a by-stander, a handgun owner named Mark Wilson who was just trying to stop chaos.
A total of more than 130 bullets flew through the air. Dollison took five of those.
"I laid there for a few seconds and I was like 'This isn't how it's going to go down. This isn't the end,'" Dollison said in a 2015 interview with CBS19. "I got up, I found him again, I re-engaged him. I remember getting hit again. After that, everything went in slow motion. Everything went like black. At that time, when everything went black, I accepted that this was probably the end."
Instead, he lived. And, every day, Dollison is thankful for the second chance he received after saving so many others.
"God saved me," Dollison recalled. "He was the only person that could. I mean I got shot five times. There's no reason I should have made it."
Arroyo led officials on a chase that lasted several miles after he left the scene of the shooting, but continued firing at officer's through the rear window of his pickup truck. Arroy was then shot and killed by law enforcement.
Dollison spent 13 months rehabilitating before he returned to duty. He is now a detective with the Smith County Sheriff's Office in the criminal investigation division.
However, in August 2016, Dollison was admitted to a Tyler hospital with life-threatening complications from the shooting that happened 11 years ago. In 2017, fellow detective Josh Hill donated a much-needed kidney to Dollison Both men are now doing well.
