(credit: CBSDFW.COM)

ARLINGTON (CBS 11 NEWS) – Arlington Police Officer Bryan Graham believes it was his helmet that saved his life on June 5th of this year, the day he was shot in the head during a hostage situation.

“It did hit the lip of my helmet which caused it to slow down and then fragment before it hit me,” said Graham at a news conference just before he and his family left for Austin.

Governor Rick Perry is scheduled to present Graham and about 50 others with the Star of Texas Award in Austin tomorrow. The award is given to peace officers, fire fighters and emergency medical responders who are seriously injured or killed in the line of duty.

Graham returned to full, active duty on the SWAT team 20 days after he was shot. He jokes about the fact that the scar on the right side of his head is barely visible.

“It entered in the right here, right along my eyebrow and exited right behind my ear, but obviously you can’t see anything now. Nothing to show for it but it was me.” he says.

Graham says the bullet entered his skin but didn’t puncture his skull.

Graham’s supervisor, Sgt. Brook Rollins, was at the scene and says when he heard that Graham was shot he felt “horrible, absolutely horrible.”

And about Graham’s quick recovery from a head wound: “I think it is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen” says Sgt. Rollins.

Officer Graham is a 12-year veteran of the Arlington Police Department. He and his wife, Lauren, have two children who are ages eight and five. Graham says they have been honest with their children about the shooting.

Officer Graham says, right now, both his son and his daughter want to grow up and become police officers.

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