The picture above casts the blues in more ways than one. The fully-marked police SUV is void of any police presence. There is ominous yellow crime-scene tape in the background. There is darkness all around.
Darkness. That is pretty much a replication of what it feels like for cops, especially when the news of more police murders comes across radio frequencies too frequently.
To date, the number of police murders reflects a 200 percent increase over last year’s rate at this very same time. As of this writing, with a mere 51 days in to 2018, 12 police officers have been killed by gunfire while on-duty. We are not even close to closing the entire first quarter…and that is the point. Sixteen states’ LEOs were impacted by police murders. For that matter, all the nation’s cops were.
In February alone, seven police murders stemmed from gunfire in the course of duty:
- Commander Paul Bauer, Chicago Police Department.
- Police Officer Chase Maddox, Locust Grove Police Department, Georgia.
- K9 Officer Eric Joering, Westerville Division of Police, Ohio.
- Police Officer Anthony Morelli, Westerville Division of Police, Ohio.
- Police Officer David Sherrard, Richardson Police Department, Texas.
- Deputy Sheriff Steven Belanger, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, California
- Deputy Sheriff Micah Flick, El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado
One of the aforementioned warriors, Police Commander Paul Bauer, 53, served in the Chicago Police Department for 31 years. He succumbed to gunfire in a stairwell.
Locust Grove, Georgia police Officer Chase Maddox, a 26-year-old father with another child on the way at the time of his death, was shot on February 9, 2018 while helping with an arrest warrant being served by two Henry County sheriff’s deputies. Incidentally, those two Henry County deputies were shot also, both surviving.
Officer Maddox’s wife gave birth four days after her husband’s line-of-duty death. Mrs. Alex Maddox and her two fatherless children were escorted by police, from the hospital to their home. Thereafter, the expectant mother and unsuspecting widow was escorted by throngs of cops, into a church to eulogize her husband.
Newborn Bodie Allen Maddox entered the world on February 13, 2018, a day before Officer Maddox and his wife would have expressed their love for each other on Valentine’s Day. But a bad guy with a gun preempted such a momentous occasion. Instead, Baby Bodie cradled his dad’s wedding ring in his tiny hand, unaware of what transpired and the tremendous void he has yet to confront. Albeit stark, one generation gave way to the next.
In this recent batch of police murders, firearms were the instrument used by bad guys, exclusively.
Such was the case on November 28, 2015 when Ray Shetler, Jr., 33, shot and killed St. Clair Township police Officer Lloyd Earl Reed, Jr., 54. According to Trib Live, “In an extremely rare move” and “after six days of testimony and more than 20 hours of jury deliberations, Ray Shetler Jr. was found not guilty of murder Friday in the fatal shooting” of Officer Reed.
The rather bizarre and deeply disgusting part is what Shetler did for which, albeit seemingly cut-and-dried wrong, was let off Scot free. On that fateful day, Shelter opened fire and unloosed three bullets at clearly-marked police officials. Strongly resembling a coward, he fled the scene, concealed his clothing and his murder weapon, and eluded cops for roughly six hours. He was subsequently apprehended by Pennsylvania State Police officers and charged with the murder of Officer Reed.
Oddly, Kristen Luther, the victim who initially called police claiming her boyfriend (Shetler) was beating on her, testified on Shetler’s behalf. Both Shetler and Luther claimed Officer Reed fired first, resulting in Shetler’s return fire.
Per the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP), Officer Reed “was fatally shot by the subject as he arrived at the location. Despite being wounded, Officer Reed was able to return fire and wounded” Shetler.
Shetler testified he did not know Officer Reed was a policeman…and the jury bought it. One Jr. was given justice while the other Jr. was buried below a headstone.
My experiences with many domestic violence (DV) cases is similar to what played-out in the Shetler investigation and subsequent trial. The would-be victim recounts and stands by her man (or woman). In this case, however, a man’s life was lost to injustice while lovebirds walk from court together. Indubitably, police work gets quite grotesque.
While Shetler spent February 17, 2018 a free man, Officer Maddox’s blood and blue family said their goodbyes in a church and then at his eternal resting place.
With the breadth of what cops do on the daily, it is even more disgusting to digest how some monstrous “humans” are so depraved to deny sanctity of life. Since when is fear and panic and shame better stand-ins for decency and integrity? How self-loathing must one be to so callously cease lives of others?
I am reminded of the scene and dialogue in “The Green Mile” when the largest man in the house, with a special supernatural gift, weeps while saying, “I’m tired, boss…mostly I’m tired of people being ugly to each other. I’m tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world every day. There’s too much of it. It’s like pieces of glass in my head all the time.”
That’s a big man with more than a modicum of empathy. Death-row inmate John Coffey stood large in stature and humanity, in ways similar to Officer Maddox and a long list of others who went down in the name of self-sacrifice for others’ salvation. Intertwined, it’s a human thing and a cop thing to forge forward and lunge for peril’s gullet.
The blue mile is walked every day by everyday cops on the beat, in a patrol cruiser, on a boat, on horseback, on motorcycles, in a helicopter, in SWAT gear, and in our nation’s schools. Some say police work is doing the impossible for the ungrateful. Yet cops do what they do…not for gratitude, but because of that deep innateness to do what is right for whomever is wronged, for those who need a shoulder or listening-ear.
To the sounds of shots they run. To the pleas for help they hasten. For your needs their needs are shelved. And sometimes they do not get the chance to go home, ever again.
No cop enjoys stringing crime-scene tape…and no cop is unshaken by lacing that ominous tape around a fallen police officer’s body and cruiser…wherever the last-stand ensued. Yet, every cop took an oath and swore to fill it, as exemplified by the law enforcement officials memorialized herein.
