WOODWAY, Texas — Chief Khalil El-Halabi is the newest police chief in Central Texas, and he may be the first from the Middle East.
El-Halabi is the new Director of Public Safety in Woodway, where all 30 police officers on the force double as firefighters.
25 News got to know the man behind the badge and the childhood that shaped his future.
"We had a bomb shelter," El-Halabi said.
He grew up in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1980's.
"A grenade landed in our front yard and by God's grace it did not explode."
A close call — but not the last.
"A bomb crashed through [his mother's] roof top and landed on her desk," El-Halabi said.
"My mom went into early labor because a jet flew above her like 40 feet and made her pass out."
After years of waiting for a Green Card, the whole family would get their passports to catch a flight to a better life.
On their first day in America, they went to McDonald's, "because McDonald's represented America then," El-Halabi said.
They would set up their first American home in Kansas.
In his culture, the whole family lives together.
This means they all moved from Kansas to Waco when his sister got accepted to Baylor.
Childhood photos show a young El-Halabi proudly holding the American flag.
From a joyful arrival to sharing one of the darkest days in American history, his homeland of choice would shape his future.
"I remember seeing my dad cry, and I've never seen him cry in my life. 9/11 just broke him down," El-Halabi said.
"That's when I knew I just had to do something."
The terror attack would inspire him to join the McLennan County police academy in 2008.
"I had never shot a gun in my life. My dad was so anti [gun] because of the war."
El-Halabi would go from cadet to chief — all in Woodway.
With so many officers finding themselves on the wrong side of the law in recent years nationwide, how do police regain public trust?
This is something he now teaches at the academy.
"We're faced a lot with making ethical choices and there's always a right answer and we just need to make it," El-Halabi said.
The U.S. Constitution hangs in his office as a constant reminder of the law he's sworn to uphold in a country that's given his family so much.
Woodway is hiring, and they need five more officers to double as firefighters, in order to be fully staffed.
El-Halabi's parents owned a gas station in Waco where he got to know the police officers who would stop by as customers, sparking his interest at a very young age.
