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SALT LAKE CITY — It's not every day that a person convicted of DUI wants to take the police officer who arrested him out to lunch.
Yet that's what Aaron Dozier did Wednesday. The Salt Lake man met Unified police detective Greg Smith at the Olive Garden in Sugar House to buy him lunch as a small token of appreciation for saving his life.
"I'm just extremely grateful to him. And to this day, feeling so much better," Dozier, 32, said as the two greeted each other in front of the restaurant, both smiling.
It was a much different scene the first time the two met.
Turning point
On Jan. 13, 2014, Dozier was huffing a can of compressed air cleaner — typically used for cleaning computers and keyboards — while in his car and he passed out at the wheel. A passerby spotted Dozier and called 911.
When Smith arrived, Dozier was unconscious, wasn't breathing and had no pulse. The can of air cleaner "was frozen on his mouth — a full can, just burning in his mouth," the officer recalled.
Smith helped Dozier until paramedics arrived and then visited him later at the hospital.
There's not one day that goes by that I don't think about that day. That was a godsend from heaven. He was an angel.
–Aaron Dozier
"I remember in the hospital we were talking about what I was doing, what I should not do in the future. I believe I gave him my word not to ever do it again," Dozier said.
Smith remembers telling Dozier that night to just "hang in there."
"Things do get better. The sun does shine again. Even as difficult and as dark as it seems sometimes, the sun does shine again. Just got to wait it out," he said.
From that moment on, Dozier said he vowed to change.
"There's not one day that goes by that I don't think about that day," he said Wednesday. "That was a godsend from heaven. He was an angel."
"I'm not sure I'd put me in the angel category," Smith replied with a laugh. "It's kind of you to say. Aaron was in real trouble that night and my hope was just to give him hope."
Reformation
Dozier was convicted of DUI after the incident. He was placed on probation and was ordered to seek treatment. Prior to that, Dozier had experienced several run-ins with the law on shoplifting charges, according to court records.
But since February of 2014, court records show Dozier has not had any new charges filed against him.
Smith said seeing Dozier again on Wednesday made him feel grateful.
"In the kind of work that I'm in, you just go from place to place and hope that you make a difference. If you build houses, at the end of the day you can see what you actually, physically constructed. … We don't get to see the end product. We just hope that something we do, something we say might give guys just a thought about making better choices," he said.
"Everybody faces tough choices sometimes. And every single one of us at some point, sometime or other, has to tell ourselves, 'We have to do something different. We have to change. This isn't working.' And knowing when we have these life changing events or have people that intervene or interact with us, it's a godsend."
Smith, who recently marked his 38th year in law enforcement, said it's moments like Wednesday's that make him really enjoy his profession.
"This is what pay day is, being able to see a guy a year later and realize that he listened, he heard what I was trying to convey to him," Smith said before turning to Dozier and telling him that he would be buying him lunch instead.
"When you reached out, I said that I'd take you to lunch. And I am. You're not buying this, brother."
