Recovering officer rings Wall Street bell

NYPD Officer Kevin Brennan, who narrowly escaped death in January after he was shot in the head during a struggle with a gunman, was back in the city Wednesday to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Actually, the Garden City Park resident pushed a button that set off the bell as admiring traders clapped and cheered from the floor of the busy exchange.

"You could say it was surreal," said Brennan, 28. "It was just a great feeling, looking down and seeing all the traders applauding."

Brennan said he's still undergoing rehabilitation four hours a day, two days a week. Behind him now is the work of retraining his brain to perform basic functions, like walking, he said.

"The first two or three days I couldn't walk. I had no balance."

The married father of an infant daughter was shot point-blank Jan. 31 during a late-night struggle with suspected gunman Luis Ortiz, 21, in the Bushwick Houses in Brooklyn. Brennan sustained a wound to the right rear of his head when a bullet from a .38-caliber handgun allegedly fired by Ortiz, penetrated the skin and lodged outside his skull.

A month later, Brennan said he's undergoing electric stimulation, followed by massage therapy to loosen the muscles from the neck injury he sustained in the shooting. His neck, shoulders and back muscles have atrophied and he said he's lost 20 pounds.

He's hoping to begin building back his strength soon.

But he had no problems going on a tour of the stock exchange with his wife, Janet, and infant daughter, Maeve.

Brian Gimlett, the stock exchange's security chief, said he arranged to have Brennan set off the opening bell.

"It was a great opportunity to identify the personal sacrifices police officers make to the people of the city," he said.