ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Many of officer Chris Balkcom’s work stories start the same and end in an arrest. But this story from September 2023 still isn’t over. 

“It was a very traumatic, very traumatic event,” said Balkcom. 

He was with his specialized unit within the state’s Probation and Parole Department, trying to track down Stephen Montano. 

“We were out in Cibola County, Grants, New Mexico,” Balkcom said. 

The warrant they were trying to serve was for not showing up to a jury trial. The charges were connected to running from Grants police a year earlier.

Court records show Montano has a history of crimes in Bernalillo County also, dating back to 2016. Investigators say Montano ran again this time, and threw a bike in officer Balkcom’s path. 

“I did sustain a very severe injury to my left eye as a result of that operation,” said Balkcom.

Balkcom tripped and fell on a pole sticking out of the ground. 

“My left eye basically exploded, and I lost vision in that eye,” Balkcom said. 

His supervisor, Joshua Giacci, was there that day. 

“We started trying to render aid on him to figure out what was going on, and then that’s when I noticed just his eyeball was gone,” said Giacci. 

“I remember being in the police, car racing, flights and sirens to the hospital. Then, basically the helicopter coming to get me,” said Balkcom. “I thought for sure I was going to lose my eye.”

But he wasn’t going to let that happen. He endured four surgeries in less than a year, each one coming with its own challenges. 

“With a retina surgery, you have to lay face down for seven days. They filled my eye with oil in order to hold my retina in place. So I had to lay face down for seven days, and I could get up 10 minutes every hour,” said Balkcom.

He says recovery started with the small things.

“Like pouring a cup of coffee with no depth perception. I would miss the coffee, and I pour it all over the table,” Balkcom said. 

He pushed through the emotional toll — more falls during training — and accepting this life-long change for the sake of his career. 

“I didn’t need to feel sorry for myself. And it was never about, you know, poor me, This happened to me. It was, how do I come back and how do I get back to what I love, and that was so important to me,” said Balkcom. 

Now, he’s back on the job. 

“I can drive as I would, before I get places quickly if I need to. I can run, jump, climb, do all the things that that my job entails,” Balkcom said. 

The experience even inspired him to pursue a master’s degree in mental health counseling with a focus on first responder fields.

“Going through the process and going through the trauma and going through the medical experience, and the impact that it had on everybody around me, it really inspired me,” said Balkcom. 

Proving resilience can be more powerful than some of the toughest obstacles.

Balkcom is preparing for his fifth, and possibly final, eye surgery in March to replace his iris. 

Montano is set to go on trial for this case in federal court in January.