#127 - Beating The Angel of Death: How He Survived Being Shot Point Blank by A Child Predator w/Ali Perez

August 31, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

When former Navy diver and San Diego Sheriff's Detective Ali Perez kicked open the door of a Lakeside apartment on September 25, 2012, he expected to arrest a child predator on overwhelming evidence—videos, photos, and an admission of guilt. Instead, he walked into an ambush. A child molester with an M1 Garand rifle fired at point-blank range, blowing off Perez's bicep, shattering his humerus, and punching a grapefruit-sized hole through his chest. The only thing keeping his arm intact was "the tricep meat holding onto my elbow." What happened next—over 11 minutes of bleeding out, locked inside with a shooter who had every reason to finish him—became the foundation of a story Perez describes not as a survival tale, but as a direct encounter with Jesus Christ.

From Navy Diver to Child Abuse Detective

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What you'll learn

1 Timestamped Navigation Outline
2 (00:00) **Episode Warning** - Content advisory for graphic violence and adult themes
3 (01:05) **Introduction and Background** - Ali Perez is introduced as a former Navy diver, San Diego sheriff's detective, and survivor of being shot by a child predator
4 (06:21) **Early Life and Path to Navy Diving** - Ali describes growing up in Texas, seeing underwater welding on MTV, and deciding to join the Navy to become a diver
5 (10:50) **Navy Dive School: Training and Gas Laws** - The physical and academic demands of dive school, including learning Boyle's Law, Charles Law, and decompression sickness
6 (13:05) **Pool Week and Sharking** - The brutal culmination of scuba phase where instructors beat students underwater to test their composure
7 (20:52) **Surface Supply Diving and Final Qual Dive** - Training with Mark 12 hard hats and the 190-foot qual dive at Point Loma

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Former Navy diver and San Diego County law enforcement veteran Ali Perez survived an encounter that should have ended his life. What began as an operation to arrest a suspected child predator turned into a close-range gunfight after Ali entered a darkened apartment and was met by a rifle.

Ali describes being shot multiple times, suffering catastrophic injuries, becoming trapped inside the apartment with the gunman, continuing to fight while severely wounded, running out of ammunition, and eventually believing he was about to die.

Then the story takes a turn that Ali says changed the rest of his life.

This conversation goes far beyond that single day.

Ali takes us inside Navy dive school, including the brutal underwater training and what happens to the human mind nearly 200 feet beneath the surface. He recounts responding to a school shooting and helping apprehend the teenage shooter, the psychological aftermath of seeing children killed, his thoughts on law enforcement response during active-shooter incidents, and the disturbing reality of investigating physical and sexual crimes against children.

He also walks us through the aftermath of his own shooting: massive blood loss, emergency surgery, his family being warned that he likely would not survive, years of recovery, 43 surgeries, faith, forgiveness and rebuilding a life after everything changes in seconds.

Whether you share Ali's beliefs or question what he experienced, this is a conversation about what happens when a man reaches the absolute edge of life and has to decide what comes next.

Watch Episode 127 now on YouTube, or listen everywhere you get your podcasts.

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