"We need everybody to be praying for his family and this officer," Sheriff Wayne Coats said Monday.
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James Eric Cook has more than 10 years of service with the department.
Authorities say he was shot Saturday by 16-year-old Mario Alexander Garza III.
Garza was the subject of a missing persons report on Friday. Cook was following up with the investigation of the missing persons report when he encountered Garza and a scuffle broke out.
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Officials said Monday that Cook is stable.
"It was a sickening phone call that I got," said Sheriff Coats. "When they said he had been shot, I knew officer Cook always wore a vest and I thought if he wasn't hit anywhere else he'll probably be okay. On the way to Cape Fear I got the phone call that he had been shot in the face."
Garza was also arrested in February after bringing a pocket knife to school.
He's now charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and assault with a firearm on law enforcement.