A Maricopa County sheriff's deputy who was critically hurt in a parking-lot incident nearly a decade ago succumbed to his injuries this week.
David Wargo, 39, will be buried next Tuesday with the honors typically afforded a deputy killed in the line of duty.
Wargo died this past Tuesday after spending the past nine years in a vegetative state, shuffling from a rehabilitation center in California to being cared for at his Valley home, where his wife and children helped tend to his needs.
Wargo's pain worsened in recent years, said his widow, Lisa.
Lisa said she treasured the additional years she got to spend by her husband's side, where she has remained since she quit her job as a detention officer to care for him. But she is happy he is finally at peace.
"I brought him home, I took care of him. I took care of two kids in diapers along with him in diapers. And that was my life," she said. "Life is going to be different. We're happy. The last three years have been really tough on him. I know I cry, and I'm going to miss him, but at the same time, I'm glad he's now going to rest."
Wargo was in his sheriff's uniform and working in an off-duty capacity in May 2003 at a supermarket at 83rd Avenue and Camelback Road when he asked Jose Fortino Grande to move his truck. Grande, 36, tried to flee the scene while Wargo was holding on to the truck.
Reports from the incident indicate that Grande was going as fast as 50 mph when Wargo, a former member of the sheriff's SWAT unit, fell from the truck and struck his head on the pavement.
The incident left Wargo with debilitating injuries that limited his communications to eye blinks and finger lifts, Lisa said.
Still, he had been a constant presence in his family's life.
"Whatever the kids were doing, if the kids had a program at school, I took David," Lisa said. "That's pretty much what my nine years have been: that was Dad and that was our family.
"Sure, I wanted my miracle to get up and walk and talk and be my vibrant SWAT officer, but that wasn't in the cards. My kids were servants to their father, they were already learning how to feed him and to change him and to clean his mouth. It made them good kids."
The Sheriff's Office has for years held fundraisers to help Wargo's family offset the high costs of his continuing care. Last year, the sheriff's Memorial Fund donated $25,000 to Wargo and his family after his condition worsened.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio said in a statement that Wargo's death marked a sad day for Maricopa County. "We lost a brave deputy who put his life on the line in the interest of public safety," Arpaio said. "He will not be forgotten."
Lisa Wargo said she has no interest in pursuing murder charges, now that her husband has died, against Grande, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison and is scheduled to be released in 2019.
"It's just an open wound to bring that sadness and all that back again that I do not want to. I know that he has to wake up every day with that guilt," she said. "I don't want him to forget. But, at the same token, I'm done attacking. Is it going to bring David back to me? No."
