`HERE FOR A PURPOSE' VOLUNTEER INSPIRES LOCAL POLICE.

Byline: EUGENE TONG Staff Writer

GLENDALE -- Jorge Acevedo always wanted to be a police officer, but that dream was shattered by three bullets from a carjacker that left him paralyzed from the waist down.

Still, Acevedo found the will to persevere, and he has been a volunteer for four years at the Glendale Police Department, in between attending classes and helping the women's soccer team at Glendale college.

``I'm here for a purpose,'' he said Tuesday. ``I have to do something in this life, and things in this world aren't always bad. You have to have the positivity within yourself.''

Volunteering to do clerical and Spanish-translation work, he has found a second family in the Glendale Police Department. When his motorized wheelchair broke down recently, the officers collected more than $3,800 to buy him a new one, which they presented to him on Tuesday.

``He's incredible,'' said police Sgt. Tim Feeley, who has worked with Acevedo since he became a volunteer in 2002. ``He's an inspiration to everybody here. His positive attitude is something that keeps us going every day.''

Born in Colombia, Acevedo, 35, immigrated to the United States with his parents at age 7 and settled in the MacArthur Park area of L.A.

Though he had dreamed of police work -- his father was a policeman in Colombia -- Acevedo studied graphic design at California State University, Northridge, after graduating from Belmont High School.

But he dropped out in 1994 when his father suffered a heart attack and couldn't work. As the oldest of four siblings, including a sister then only 3 years old, he became the breadwinner.

Still, he continued studying for a career in policing until the carjacking on Christmas 1999 that changed his life forever. He was shot once in the head -- that bullet is still lodged in his spinal cord -- and twice in the leg.

The attack left him comatose, and the doctors were close to giving up after 1 1/2 months. But his mother, Alcira, held out hope.

``The doctors were telling my parents it's too long; we have to disconnect him,'' Acevedo said. ``My mom was saying, `That can't be done, because he was still speaking to me.'

``All of the sudden, the light came on, and I was back again. I thought I was in a dream.''

The shooting paralyzed his legs and slowed his speech and mobility. It took 1 1/2 years of physical therapy before he could move back home.

``It was really hard for everyone for the prime income earner to get in a situation like that,'' his brother Frank Acevedo said. ``But he doesn't let it affect him. If anything, it's more motivation.''

Acevedo credited his parents with pushing him forward despite his disability.

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Glendale Police Department volunteer Jorge Acevedo looks back at his old wheelchair while enjoying his new one at the department, whose officers collected money to buy it as a surprise that was presented Tuesday.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer