The two burly men hugged awkwardly — almost as if they were strangers.
In a way, they are.
“I was nervous about this — I’ll admit it,” said one of the men, Trey Brice, after the reunion Tuesday at a downtown hotel.
The last time Chicago Police Officer Maurizio Cazares saw Brice, Brice was sitting propped up against a planter on Michigan Avenue, blood gushing from his neck.
On that March 28, 2021, afternoon, Brice and his 15-year-old son were tourists heading toward the former John Hancock Center. A man approached Brice, demanded money, then Brice’s phone.
“‘Give me your phone or I’ll kill you!’” Brice, 54, remembers the man saying. “I thought he was kind of joking.”
The man slashed at Brice’s neck. His son called 911. Cazares was quickly on the scene, along with his partner, Officer Israel Martinez.
This is where the story gets complicated: Martinez, just 27, helped save Brice’s life that day. But then he died unexpectedly about two weeks later. Martinez died of coronary artery disease, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
So on Tuesday, it was an opportunity for Brice to thank his surviving savior and to remember Martinez, the young gung-ho cop who learned first aid while in the Army National Guard before joining the Chicago Police Department.
Cazares told Brice that he was Robin to Martinez’s Batman.
“When it came to what happened to you, I took a back seat. I said to [Martinez], ‘What do I need to do?’” Cazares recalled.
That was Martinez — a cop who somehow managed to save the lives of five people, including Brice, in the span of 14 months.
Cazares loved him like a little brother. Cazares has since had a tattoo with the word “Izzy” — Martinez’s nickname — inked on his right arm.
Brice doesn’t remember too much about Martinez — but he remembers his face and his reassuring presence immediately after the stabbing.
“He was very calm and talked us through it: ‘I’m going to do this. I’m going to help you. How are you?’” said Brice, a construction lawyer who lives in suburban Detroit and was in town this week for a business conference.
Brice ended up at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He said he got lucky — the knife punctured his neck between his windpipe and jugular vein.
Alaxstair Reed, 39, of Chicago, was arrested a few minutes later and charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery. He awaits trial.
Martinez’s death “added a whole sad layer” to the story of the attack, Brice said.
Brice this week returned to the spot where he’d been stabbed, at the intersection with Chicago Avenue.
“I don’t want to be afraid and avoid it,” he said.
His reunion with Cazares was brief. They hugged again, and shook hands, before parting.
Brice declared Chicago “a great city.”
“Brother, if you’re ever in town again, if you ever need anything, just call me,” Cazares said.
