COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for shooting a Colorado Springs police officer in the head.

The Gazette reports Karrar Noaman Al Khammasi was convicted in June of attempted murder and other charges and was sentenced Thursday for the 2018 shooting that left officer Cem Duzel with a serious brain injury.

Prosecutors say Al Khammasi shot Duzel while drunkenly firing at police after he was kicked out of an Uber car for being “handsy.” Duzel and other officers were responding to reports of shots fired in a neighborhood near the Olympic Training Center when they encountered Al Khammasi.

Duzel’s gunshot wound sent him to a Denver brain injury clinic for months. His healing process was highlighted in November 2019, when he walked across a stage at a police ceremony just over a year after the shooting to accept a Medal of Valor, the department’s highest honor.

Al Khammasi, who came to the United States as an Iraqi refugee, had been slated for deportation in 2016 until a change in immigration law meant that a prior felony trespassing conviction wasn’t grounds for removal.

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