Mount Vernon officer recovering from gunshot wound to head no longer in intensive care unit

SEATTLE -- A Mount Vernon police officer recovering from a gunshot wound to the head has improved to the point that he's been moved out of Harborview's Intensive Care Unit for the first time since the Dec. 15 shooting, the hospital said Thursday.

Officer Michael "Mick" McClaughry was transferred from ICU on Wednesday to an acute care unit at Harborview, a hospital news release said.

In addition, the news release said Dr. Randy Chesnut, of neurological surgery at Harborview Medical Center, will give "a broad update" on the officer's condition to the media on Friday, along with April McClaughry, the officer's daughter.

On Tuesday, April McClaughry wrote on the family's Facebook page that her father "is doing quite well"  and had even shocked her mom that day by speaking to her from his hospital bed for the first time.

"My mom walked in today and said 'how are you doing' he actually responded with 'I'm o.k.' which nearly knocked my mom off her rocker," April wrote. "She was both shocked and elated!"

On Dec. 15, McClaughry, 61, a father of three, was shot in the head and critically wounded while investigating a weapons offense call near Laventure Road in Mount Vernon. The men responsible, said police, were holed up in a home. An hours-long standoff ended with three people taken into custody and charged with attempted murder. Two of them are teenagers.

McClaughry was airlifted to Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, where he underwent emergency surgery and had been in its intensive care unit until Wednesday, Jan. 4.

In Tuesday's update,  April wrote, "My dad is doing quite well still. He is looking a lot better and more like himself every day.