More than 1,000 law enforcement officers participated in this year’s Police Unity Tour, a 300-mile bicycle trek to
Washington,
DC, to raise money for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and to focus attention on the nearly 18,000 officers who have been killed in the performance of duty throughout our nation’s history.
Two of those participants, Enrique and Jeremy Chavez, had a very personal reason for riding.
Their brother, Eduardo Chavez, a trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety, was killed in a traffic crash on May 2, 2006.
2006 Causes of Law Enforcement Deaths
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Trooper Chavez, 30, was responding to assist another officer on a narcotics arrest when the crash occurred.
The seven-year law enforcement veteran left behind a wife and young child.
Just the day before he died, Trooper Chavez had been presented with an Outstanding Service Award for his impressive job performance.
Eduardo Chavez was one of 21 officers working for state police agencies who made the ultimate sacrifice in 2006.
This was a 40 percent increase over the 15 state police officers who were killed in 2005, and the most for a single year in more than a decade.
Of the 21 state police officers killed in 2006, 11 were killed in auto crashes, five were killed by gunfire, four were struck and killed while outside of their vehicles and one died in a bicycle crash while on duty.
Texas
was one of three state police agencies, along with
New York and
California, which lost three officers in 2006.
On January 1, 2006, Trooper Billy Jack Zachary became the first when he was struck and killed by a pick-up truck that slammed into him as he was returning to his vehicle during a traffic stop.
Before the month was out,
Texas lost a second trooper, Matthew Myrick, 36, who died in an automobile crash while en route to an accident scene.
The State of
Ohio mourned the loss of two troopers who were killed in an automobile crash on September 28.
Sergeant Dale Holcomb and Trooper Joshua Risner died when their cruiser spun out on a slick roadway and crashed. This marked the first time in its 73-year history that the Ohio Highway Patrol had lost two officers in the same incident.
In
Oklahoma, the Department of Public Safety suffered the loss of Trooper Steven Roy Smith, who eight years earlier was investigating the report of a murder in a local cemetery, when he struggled with a suspect and was shot in the neck. Trooper Smith, who was paralyzed as a result of his injuries, died on February 9, 2006.
Later in the year, on October 1, Oklahoma Trooper William McClendon, a highly decorated officer, was killed in an automobile crash while responding to a “road rage” incident.
Indiana State Police Lieutenant Gary Dudley died on August 22, as he and 30 other law enforcement officers were participating in a bicycle ride to raise money for the
Indiana chapter of COPS – Concerns of Police Survivors. A truck collided with the cyclists, killing Lieutenant Dudley and Chief Gary Martin of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department.
On June 5, 2006, Patrolman James Archuleta, a former Marine and two-year veteran of the New Mexico State Police, was responding to a local hospital where a shooting had occurred when his cruiser struck a cow that had wandered onto the roadway. Patrolman Archuleta suffered fatal injuries after his vehicle flipped over several times.
Automobile crashes also claimed the lives of Massachusetts State Police Trooper Paul Barry, Kentucky Trooper Jonathan Leonard, Corporal Michael Young of the Georgia Department of Public Safety, and Sergeant Rodney Miller, a 16-year veteran of the Illinois State Police.
On February 18, Virginia State Trooper Kevin Manion was killed in a freak accident while assisting another trooper at an accident scene.
As a tow truck pulled the car from a ditch, a rifle inside the vehicle discharged, fatally striking Trooper Manion in the chest.
On November 24, Virginia Senior Trooper Robert Hill Sr. was speaking to the driver of a vehicle he had stopped when he was struck and killed by another car that had drifted from the travel lane.
The California Highway Patrol suffered two losses within a matter of days in mid-February. On February 17, Police Officer Earl Scott made a traffic stop on Highway 99 for speeding. As he was walking back to his cruiser to verify the driver’s identification and registration, the suspect shot the five-year veteran officer in the back of the head.
Just eight days later, Officer G. John Bailey, a 10-year veteran, was conducting a traffic stop when he was struck and killed by another vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed.
Then on August 6, a third
California Highway Patrol officer, Brent Clearman, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver while investigating an accident scene.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger publicly lamented the loss of all three officers. “Californians owe a debt of gratitude to the brave men and women who put themselves in constant danger to keep us safe,” he said.
New York State Trooper Andrew “AJ” Sperr was closing in on two bank robbery suspects when he was shot and killed on March 1, 2006.
In addition to Trooper Sperr, the New York State Police mourned the deaths of two other outstanding members during 2006. Trooper Craig Todeschini was killed in a traffic accident on April 23 as he was pursuing a suspect on a motorcycle traveling over 100 miles per hour. On September 3, Trooper Joseph Longobardo was shot and killed during an ambush attack as he and his partner were searching for an escaped convict wanted for shooting another state trooper two months earlier.
New York Governor George Pataki paid tribute to these fallen officers, saying, “Heroes are not someone who can throw a ball 100 miles per hour … or dunk a basketball. The heroes are the men and women who dedicate their lives every day to protect our freedom.”
Craig W. Floyd is chairman of the National law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
Visit
www.nleomf.com
for more information about law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
“Reprinted with permission of the author and AMERICAN POLICE BEAT.”
