Kralicek improving, wife says

Coeur d’Alene Police Officer Michael Kralicek is making gradual progress at a rehabilitation center in Colorado, his wife said at a news conference Friday afternoon.

Carrie Kralicek appeared with daughter Alexis at the Coeur d’Alene Police Department to update the public on the condition of her husband, who was shot in the neck in late December while on duty, and to accept an honor and gifts on behalf of her husband by the Kootenai County Eagles, a football team with the Inland Northwest Football League.

The team dedicated its season to Kralicek, whom members called their hero, and had the officer’s radio call number, K57, affixed to team helmets. They also presented gifts of a signed helmet and football to Carrie Kralicek.

“This team hopes to have the strength and heart that Michael does,” team member and fellow officer Lt. Randy Miller told Carrie Kralicek.

Carrie Kralicek said her husband, who has been at the Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo., since early February, is taking “baby steps” toward his recovery after being shot and paralyzed in a Dec. 28 shootout in Hayden. He was shot by Michael Madonna, 39, who was killed by a Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputy’s bullet in the exchange of gunfire.

“Those little steps forward are huge for us,” Carrie Kralicek said. “For me it’s just a day-to-day thing.”

Carrie Kralicek is living in Englewood with Alexis, younger of two daughters, to be near her husband and to assist in his rehabilitation. Their older daughter, a high school student, is living in Coeur d’Alene to attend school and work.

Michael Kralicek’s days are spent in various forms of therapy: physical, occupation and speech. He’s doing a lot of stretching and is working on shifting his weight, and supporting his weight on his arms, but he is not yet walking, she said. He can move and tap his fingers, and so is able to operate some things, such as the television controls.

He’s speaking and likes to joke around, she said.

“Our life is full of jokes. We can joke about anything and everything,” she said. “That’s what helps the most.”

Michael Kralicek is expected to return home in June, and his wife said she is confident that some day he’ll be walking again.

“I know he would like to play football with you,” she told the Eagles team. “Maybe someday he will.”

One player asked Carrie Kralicek to deliver to her husband a simple message: “Thank you.”