He shot right through the glass of Ace China restaurant. He murdered two Gilchrist County, Florida law enforcement officers as they sat together breaking afternoon bread. Both deputies perished at the tiny eatery. The malcontent who visited mayhem on two young lawmen also self-inflicted his brand of ugly: after his bullets breached the restaurant glass and killed Sgt. Noel Ramirez, 30, and deputy Sheriff Taylor Lindsey, 25…he chose suicide in his nearby car.
Leading a modest-sized agency of law enforcement officers serving a populace of about 17,212, Gilchrist County Sheriff Robert “Bobby” Schultz had the grim task of confirming that two of his deputies were partaking in “meal break” banter inside the Ace China restaurant in the small town of Trenton at approximately 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 19, 2018…before they died while dining.
At once, Trenton is the county seat with crime scene tape demarcating murders of two law enforcers whose legacies flourish, albeit via profound and inexplicable horror. Sgt. Ramirez is remembered as a family man whose wife and children most intimately knew his ubiquitous smile and giving nature. The community attests to his icon as well.
A Gilchrist County police dispatcher believed to be the girlfriend of Deputy Taylor Lindsey wrote a stirring, emotion-filled letter to him so as to process her grief-stricken police/personal world. Laden with poignant accolades and reminiscences, Kristin Hite seems to pour forward what an infinite number of folks share for not only Lindsey but all of law enforcement.
Excerpted from her Facebook post, Ms. Hite wrote: “You promised to call me back after lunch yesterday…but you didn’t, I waited…The last text message I received from you, was three minutes before you were taken…three minutes, & you were gone.” She continued, “I can’t thank you enough for always checking on me, taking care of me, & being there for me the way you were…I don’t know what I’m going to do when I go back to work & don’t hear your voice over the radio anymore, & when I don’t have you sitting there in your Tahoe behind my car, waiting on me with flowers or whatever surprise you had that day…”Â
As of this writing, the entire breadth of her message to Deputy Lindsey has been shared 11, 793 times on Facebook. The sharing of love and the sharing of grief resonates across channels of faceless folks impacted by the deaths of brothers in arms…and their loved ones who remain to make some sort of sense of unspeakable realms. Family has myriad definitions when we really get down to the relatedness of infinite possibilities, some fantastic while others tragic.
Ms. Hite explains the void left in her heart and soul, created by an ostensible loner whose run-ins with the law are antiquated but seemingly never cleansed from his DNA. According to neighbors, the cop-killer, John Hubert Highnote, 59, hardly spoke, offered no eye contact, and was barely seen. On occasion he’d retrieve his mail, then go back indoors with no lights on, they say. We now know his space was darker than most could imagine, and that came to light on Thursday as he raised his firearm and blasted though the glass pane with two street cops in his crosshairs.
Highnote struck a chord alright, it just isn’t melodious. His damnation was at his own hands; other than attributing his havoc, neither elaboration nor unwitting glorification evolve from me.
Sheriff Schultz said it best: “The world is full of cowards and the world is full of heroes. We need to highlight those heroes.” Roger that!
From a rather sleepy town poised and shaken at a bank of media mics spoke a law enforcement agency leader whose words resonate throughout and define the two lawmen for whom a police funeral he will preside. I observe and listen to Sheriff Schultz and can not help but consider the paradox that his heartfelt pre-eulogy exudes the character traits which his contingent of deputies emulated…meekly yet actionably opposed by a hateful heart mobilized from a hermit’s lair.
It is the words of Sheriff Schultz which underscores what we have been wondering, postulating, and praying away: demonization of police. Like Highnote, mention of the serpent-like spawning of anti-cop this and anti-cop that was perpetuated by a predecessor of nation-state power whose embrace of cops was more ghostlike than kindling. That predecessor (as well as many among his cabinet) stewed far-reaching bitter sentiments toward police. That administration cracked a rotten egg…allowing it to crawl and sizzle before vacating the White House. Slowly, we endeavor to tidy that mess.
My thoughts, prayers and condolences are with the families, friends and colleagues of the two @GCSOFlorida deputies (HEROES) who lost their lives in the line of duty today.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 19, 2018
A new commander-in-chief is at the helm, and thank goodness he respects, honors, and reveres cops. No, not inclined to bash Barack. Others deserve those harnessed energies in rightly-placed fashion. Now is a time to illuminate the worth of two deputies slain by an individual who presumably harbored misguided hate for his historical legal misdeeds. Sighting two marked Gilchrist County sheriff’s cruisers parked outside a nondescript eatery in which two deputies patronized their appetites, a loner with a gun unloosed bullets at the stars.
As the glass shards crumbled to the ground like bread crumbs, the waft of evil swooped to his nearby car and ended his unmitigated misery while concurrently scarring many who were elsewhere…hoping that their LEO would once again walk through the door.
From a Highnote was born a sour-note. Florida’s version of the FBI, agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement scoured the Ace China crime scene. Remotely, FDLE investigators also combed through the home owned by the cop-killer. Whether we want to be exposed to the full picture or just swiftly forget a reclusive’s existence, forensic analyses persist from which facts will produce.
As Gilchrist County Sheriff Schultz orated through a battered heart: “I made contact with the families and, as you may expect, you can never be prepared for something like that. But make no mistake they are proud of their family. They understood when their loved ones pinned on the badge and they strapped on the gun, that this was a possibility.”
The perhaps cold, stark truth prevails as accompaniments to the legacies of Sgt. Ramirez and Deputy Lindsey who shared their last meal together knowing they pinned and strapped as “God-fearing” men who were “the best of the best” and aptly labeled “the quintessential deputy sheriffs that you’d want,” Sheriff Schultz conveyed.
He honorably touted…”and I love them,” and “we will honor these men by doing our jobs.” Their Gilchrist County community outpouring resembles his words, joined together by close-knit weave in small-town Americana.
