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Show Exclusive Preview 1992 Domestic Cars lice officers’ killers. The DEA pressured organized crime to produce the man who killed Hatcher. Eight monthslater, the suspected assassin was gunned down, apparently by a mob hit man. Sophia Wooster John Davis Robert Forsyth Robert Forsyth, a veteran of the Revolutionary War who was appointed U.S. marshal of Georgia by President Washington, was the first lawman killed on dutyin the USA. On Jan. 11, 1794, Forsyth went to a house in Augusta to serve court papers on the Allen brothers. Beverly Allen raised his pistol and pulled the trigger. A bullet ripped through a door and into Forsyth’s head. José Torres James Day Kevin Welsh In seven years with theelite Emergency Response Team in Washington, D.C., Kevin Welsh earned 39 commendations for outstanding performance and 60letters of appreciation from citizens. On Aug. 4, 1986, Welsh dived into the Anacostia River to rescue a mental patient who had jumped from a bridge in an attempted suicide. Another cop savedthepatient; Welsh was swept away. At a memorial service, Deputy Chief Charles bers his friend: “Emilio was a nice guy, maybe too nice. He if he'd wanted to.” Douglas Morris Patrick Briggs Kathleen Reilly On Christmas Day 1967, Kathleen Reilly, a police detective in NewYork’s Nassau County, sawa car wreck on Meadowbrook Parkway. She stopped to help and wasstruck and killed by anothervehicle. Villie Christen James Irby Leslie Coffelt A bronze plaque hangs on an iron fence along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. The plaque reads: “In honorofLeslie Coffelt, White House policeman, who gave his life in defense ofthe president of the United States.” In the midafternoon of Nov. 1, 1950, Coffelt was posted outside Blair House, which was serving as the temporary residence ofPresident Truman and his wife while the White House was undergoing repairs, when two Puerto Rican nationalists walked up and openedfire. Truman, who was inside Blair House during the gunfight, wrote to Coffelt’s widow, Cressie: “Your devoted husband has made the supreme sacrifice. ... He died Samarra said, “Kevin died as in my defense and in defense he lived — helpingothers.” Chester Mason Luther Nickols Emilio Miyares It was Nov. 6, 1986, when police officer Emilio Miyares of Hialeah, Fla., cornered a robbery suspect in a shopping mall. “Calm down. All I want to do is to speak with you,” Miyares said, without drawing his gun. The suspect refused to surrender, grabbed Miyares’ revolver and shot him in the chest four times. The killer, Samuel Rivera of law and order.” — later linked to a number of break-ins — is on Florida’s Death Row, filing appeals. “Pour and a halfyears later, myhusbandis gone, and he is still here,” says Teresa Miyares, a mother of two who now lives on her husband’s pension. “Life’s notfair.” Ralph Garcia, a Hialeah homicide detective, remem- RANDY RICH DECIDED NOT TO BE A POLICE OFFICER AFTER HIS DAD WAS KILLED. But NOW RICH IS ON PATROL IN COLUMBUS, OHIO, WHERE f HE WEARS A BULLETPROOF VEST, SPEAKS OF “WAR ZONES’ AND HEARS ‘I LOVE YOU’ BEFORE EACH SHIFT. could have torn that guyapart Antonio Renaud John McGann Craig Dodge Craig Dodge, deputy sheriff in Nebraska’s Lancaster County, was shot and killed on March 17, 1987, when he responded to a domestic dispute. The gunman wasa drug informant for the police. Today, the deputy’s widw, Barbara, is the national president of Concerns of Police Survivors. COPS, founded in 1983, hosts an annual memorial service for officers killed in the line ofduty, provides counseling and pushes for increased death benefits. The familyofa slain police officer currently receives $144,000 from the federal government, State andlocal benefits vary Tur “isdicti1ons WI reatly. Some Il not even pay ¢ FeVts DAD’S— IS ON THE WALL oS Friday night, and patrolman RandyRich wheels his white cruiser through his city’s underbelly and talks about the night his father was killed “He pulled over a guy on a routine traffic stop. The guy, for some reason, went for mydad’s gun and shot him three times.” Gordon Joe Rich, a 23-year veteran of the Columbus Police Department, died an hour and 25 minuteslater. He was 45. “Tt’s made me more aware, more careful,” his 27-year-old sonsays as he drives through a crack neighborhood, then along a row of bars near Ohio State University. Unlike manycops, including his dad, Rich routinely wears a bulletproof vest under his white shirt. “A lot of officers figure it will never happento them. I know it could happen.” Rich was sworn in Jan. 9, 1987, nine months after his father (pictured above) was gunned down onInterstate 70 bya 25-yearold man later sentenced tolife in prison. At the funeral, an officer asked Rich, whohad applied to the police academy, if he still wanted to be a cop. “I don’t think so,” he said. But he soon changed his mind. “¥ wanted to see if I was good enough Myfather always said he liked the job. He said }he looked forward to going to work. Hefound it rewarding, interesting, exciting.” This night, there’s plentyof action. Rich responds to 13calls, includinga fight outside a bar, a suicide attempt, a missing 14year-old boy and a woman beaten by her boyfriend. “It sureis a lot busier Thereare more guns, too. You should have been with us Tuesday. It was like a war zone.” That night, he responded to a report of a man shooting from a car, a pregnant woman hit bya stray shot, a gun-ladenstolen car and an enraged spouse shooting a pistol intothe air. Rich returns to the night his fatherdied He was at home when “twopolice cruisers pulled into the driveway. An officer walked up and said, ‘Your father’s been shot.’ My heart dropped to my knees.” Just before dawn, a devastated Rich called a young woman he had a date with that evening. “Hello, Nancy,” hesaid. “I don’t think I can go out tonight. Myfatherjust got killed.” Hours later, Nancycalled to ask if he needed to talk. “We’ve been going strong ever since,” Rich says. They were married Feb. 13, 1988, and todaythey havea 1-yearold, Kenneth Joe. “At first I worried,” Nancy says. “But no more. Atleast I try notto.” As the Riches well know, cops have a divorce rate twice the norm. “Before he goes to work,” she says, “I say ‘I love you’ and ‘Be careful.’ We also make sure he never goes to work with us mad at each other.” Back inside Rich’s cruiser, the radio crackles, this time with word that the jail is virtually full and that only the most serious suspects will be taken. ““That’s frustrating.” Rich maintains that police brutality cases, like the one videotap ed in L.A., are few. “There arealways going tobe bad officers. Thetroubleis, the good ones don’t get muchpress.” He says the Columbus police get more notes of thanks than of complaint His shift ends at 4:30 a.m., as he cites a 19-year-oldfor driving witha suspendedlicense. The teen’s car is towed away. “Walk home and consider yourself lucky,” Rich orders. Then Rich, too, goes home. — T-F. Continued on Page 6 ISA WEEKEND |