BOONE COUNTY, Ky. —

A Boone County sheriff's deputy injured in the line of duty continues to recover at home and is sharing his story for the first time.

Lt. Chris Hall, who has served on the sheriff's department for almost 20 years, said he continues reliving the moment he believes he nearly lost his life.

He was laying out stop sticks at U.S. 42 and I-71/75 on a rainy Friday night in October when he was hit by the car he was trying to stop.

"I know in reality it only took a second or two," he said. "I know it happened so fast, but I could probably sit here and talk to you for hours about it."

Hall said the next several seconds seemed to move in slow motion. His body camera footage captured a car coming straight at him and Hall being hit only a few seconds later.

"Not mentally prepared to watch it yet. It's in my head. I can't stop thinking of it," Hall said.

Deputies say four teenagers were in the stolen car, leading police on a chase. They eventually abandoned the car and were arrested hours later.

Hall is bruised and has healing brush burns on his arm. His most serious injury is his knee. He said has several fractures and may need surgery.

"I could easily ride this out, retire in five months and go away, and I don't think anybody would question why," he said. "But this just makes me and motivates me to want to come back even harder ... If I do retire, the bad guys win, and I'm not going to let it happen."

Hall believes the teenager who was driving the stolen vehicle hit him intentionally.

"He had an alley and a lane he could have gone... He would run over the stop sticks," he said. "The only other choice he had was to avoid them and intentionally strike me, which I firmly believe he did."

He was thrown onto the hood of the car and then to the ground.

"First thought is your family. I have my wife, I have a 20-year-old son, a 17-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son. They're the first thing you think of. You immediately start thinking 'Are they gonna have to go to a law enforcement officer's funeral'?" he said.

While lying in the road receiving medical treatment, he said he asked someone to bring him his phone. He called his wife.

"I needed my family to hear first. I did not need them to have somebody knocking at my door, somebody making a phone call or worse, the kids finding out on social media," he said.

It is not the first time he's had to make an emergency call like that to his wife.

In 2003, Hall was rear-ended on duty while working a traffic crash on I-75 in the pouring rain. He sustained minor injuries.

In 2001, he was working for the United States Secret Service at the White House on Sept. 11. His wife was pregnant.

"After the Pentagon was struck, I made a quick phone call to her just saying, 'hey, I love you. Tell our son I love him' and I hung up on her," he said.

Hall said his wife gave birth two days later to their first child.

He said the community's support following his recent injury has been tremendous. He has received dozens of letters, cards and thank you notes, including from school children.

While he said the positive outweighs the negative, he has lingering questions about the teenagers who put him in the hospital and could have cost him his life.

"I want to know why," he said. "We all know these are kids that had stolen multiple cars, firearms, running from police and now here we are running over people, running over police officers. I just want to know what got you to this point in your life."

Hall said he knows he may never get an answer.

"Fortunately, I'm still here today. Probably shouldn't be. But it could have been bad. Instead of an attempted murder charge, it could have been a murder charge," he said.

Hall plans to return to duty as soon as he is medically cleared.

The first day of fall is just one week away and restaurants are preparing to take another hit.

“A lot of us are going into these months thinking, you know, how many more days can I survive until I have to close my restaurant?” said Kevin Boehm, a co-founder of the Boka Restaurant Group, an independent restaurant coalition.

Boehm is also a restaurant owner in Chicago, where COVID-19 restrictions have slashed indoor capacity. And he says outdoor seating won't be possible much longer.

The National Restaurant Association surveyed owners around the country. About three quarters say they're using patio space right now and hope to continue doing so for a least a few more weeks.

Outdoor dining is bringing in nearly half of their daily sales but keeping customers outside will soon get more costly.

“Equipment for outdoor dining, especially when it gets cold, get expensive, be it a tent for a parking lot, be it heaters or anything like that, that starts adding up in costs,” said Mike Whatley, VP of State and Local Affairs at the National Restaurant Association.

The association wants local governments to start grant programs for buying that equipment to keep temporary regulations in place that allow for more outdoor service.

The coalition hopes to see increased indoor capacity for cooler months. They're also lobbying for Congress to pass the Restaurants Act, which would create a $120 billion grant program for independent restaurants.

Boehm says there could be rolling closures through the winter.

“By the time we get to next summer, we're going to be looking at a much smaller array of restaurants, a lot less choices, a lot more chains, and the independent restaurant is going to be an endangered species,” said Boehm.

The National Restaurant Association says owners that are innovative are the ones that will make it through this crisis.

CINCINNATI —

As investigators look into questions about what led to a mass shooting in Smale Park, new crime cameras were going up Tuesday that could have provided some of those answers.

The shooting rang out just after Fourth of July fireworks on Sunday. Five teenagers were hit, two were killed.

Police said Milo Watson, 16 and Dexter Wright Jr., 19 were apparently trying to kill each other and both succeeded.

Some details about what happened are still unclear. Police have not said who they believe pulled a weapon first or what happened to the guns after the shooting.

“We have not recovered any firearms,” said Cincinnati police Chief Eliot Isaac.

There were no crime cameras in the area where the shooting began to help sort out the details until now.

Crews are putting up the first two of 10 new cameras planned for Smale Park.

The plan to put the cameras in the park has been the works since problems started to show up on police radar about a year ago.

The cameras will be part of the Real Time Crime camera network of more than 200 cameras across the city. The cameras are monitored and recorded by Cincinnati Police 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The two newest cameras are going up in the area where the shooting began.

Park workers said the cameras were supposed to go up last Thursday, but were delayed by weather.

CINCINNATI —

It happened in a flash.

A 10-year-old boy is in critical condition after he ran out into the path of an oncoming car and was struck in Westwood Tuesday afternoon.

It happened around 2:30 p.m. in the 3200 block of Montana Avenue outside of a crosswalk.

He ran right into the path of a white Chrysler 200.

"The car saw him at the last minute and tried to stop real fast," the woman said.

She said she called 911 as the boy's brother carried him out of the street.

Investigators said the boy was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital with life-threatening injuries. He is currently listed in critical but stable condition.

Neighbors are hoping for the best.

Some were nearby as the boy ran into the path of a car outside of a crosswalk. They said there was nothing they could do.

"I was crying, screaming Jesus name. His mom was crying," a woman who did not want to be identified said.

That woman did not want to share her name or show her face in an interview, but the pain of the situation could be heard in her voice as she recounted a horrific crash steps from her porch.

"Quick as you can blink your eye, it happened fast. I had close my eyes because I knew he wasn't making it across that street, you know, I saw it and I just did like this and I heard it, 'boom' and then I opened my eyes and he was laying on the ground," she said.

The driver was visibly upset and police said he cooperated completely. Cincinnati police said he was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the crash and wasn't injured.

Excessive speed and impairment do not appear to be factors in the crash.

Neighbors said the area is packed with cars and kids.

"It's a rarity that kids run out in the street, but it's always busy. It's constantly with kids," neighbor Holly Kenerly said.

They said this scene is a reminder of the danger anytime anyone steps off of one of these curbs.

"Just be mindful. Be mindful of your surroundings. Kids, adults, drivers," Kenerly said.

We were unable to talk with any of the boy's family about how he is doing.

Neighbors said they are praying for all involved.

Anyone who witnessed the crash is asked to call the Cincinnati Police Department's Traffic Unit at 513-352-2514.