Officer JJ Deveraux Froze in Front of a Gunman on Days of Our Lives and Shawn Brady Paid the Price

JJ DEVERAUX HESITATED AND SHAWN BRADY WAS GRAVELY INJURED. WHY DOES HE STILL HAVE A GUN?

TL;DR: JJ Deveraux bonded with Theo over the shooting that nearly ended their friendship on Days of Our Lives this week and then froze in front of Klaus the very next day because his brain would not let him pull the trigger again. Shawn took a bullet because JJ hesitated. These are two cops who have both shot the wrong person and now one is injured in the same park because of it and Salem needs to have a conversation about that.

Let Us Start With What Happened on Wednesday

JJ Deveraux sat down with Theo Carver this week and talked about the worst night of both their lives. In 2017, Theo was wearing a hoodie and breaking into a warehouse at Kate’s request when JJ, a rookie cop, chased him down and shot him without identifying him first. Theo was in a coma for a month. He woke up paralyzed. He left Salem for South Africa to learn how to walk again. JJ quit the force and nearly took his own life on Christmas Eve.

They eventually became roommates. Best friends. And this week on Days of Our Lives, they sat together and talked about it because Theo’s PTSD had resurfaced since JJ rejoined the Salem PD. They were healing.

Then Thursday happened.

Do you think JJ Deveraux should still be carrying a badge after what happened this week? Send your hottest takes to [email protected] and we just might publish them right here on the page!

The Moment JJ’s Body Remembered What His Mind Tried to Forget

Klaus confronted Liam Selejko in the park. Guns came out. Shawn Brady arrived as backup. JJ was standing right there with his weapon drawn and he could not fire. His brain sent him back to 2017, to the hoodie, to the sound of the gunshot, to the moment he realized the person bleeding on the ground was Theo.

He froze. Klaus did not. Shawn took a bullet. Liam got grazed. Klaus went down. And JJ stood in the middle of all of it knowing that if he had squeezed the trigger one second earlier, his partner would not be on the ground.

This is not about a bad cop. This is about a man whose trauma showed up at the exact moment when training was supposed to override everything else. He sat with Theo on Wednesday and thought he was making peace with it. Thursday proved that peace is not the same thing as healed.

Shawn Brady Understands This Better Than Anyone

Shawn is the one person in Salem who should understand exactly what JJ is feeling, because Shawn has his own version of this nightmare.

In Greece, Shawn shot his own father. Bo Brady had been brainwashed by Megan Hathaway and was holding Hope at gunpoint on a cliff. Shawn saw his father aiming at his mother and fired. He did not know Hope had just gotten through to Bo. Bo survived but fell into a coma that lasted years. Shawn spiraled into depression and spent a long time convincing himself he had done the only thing he could.

Now Shawn is in a hospital bed because JJ Deveraux could not do the only thing he needed to. Two cops who have both pulled the trigger at the wrong moment found themselves in a shootout, and one paid the price for the other’s hesitation. That is tragic irony even Salem cannot ignore.

Salem Needs to Talk About This

JJ froze. That is a fact. Shawn got shot because of it. That is also a fact. And on Friday, Shawn presses JJ for the truth about what happened in that park.

What is JJ supposed to say? That the last time he fired at a person, he put his best friend in a wheelchair? That he sat with Theo twenty four hours earlier talking about forgiveness and then his body decided it was not done punishing him?

JJ Deveraux shot Theo Carver. Belle Black is married to the man he just got shot by hesitating. And Theo is somewhere in Salem right now with no idea that the healing conversation he had with JJ on Wednesday may have been the very thing that made Thursday’s disaster possible.

These two men should not be partnered together. They should probably not be carrying weapons at all. And Salem is going to have to reckon with the fact that JJ Deveraux and Shawn are both haunted men with loaded guns before somebody else ends up on the ground.

Do you think Shawn will forgive JJ for freezing in the park? And should JJ Deveraux still be a cop after this? Sound off below because this conversation is long overdue!

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