Line of Duty Death: A Widow’s Perspective

Join CopsAlive next Thursday July 30th for a live interview with Kelly Young widow of slain Denver Police Detective Donald “Donnie” Young (E.O.W. May 8, 2005).  Detective Young was killed in the early morning hours on Mother’s Day 2005 while working off duty in uniform at a private baptismal celebration.  Young and his partner had asked some young men who were trying to crash the invitation only event to leave, and they became combative, so they were escorted out by Detective Young.  A short time later one of the men came back to the party with a gun and shot both police officers from behind.  Young was shot twice in the back and once in the head and was killed while his partner, Detective John “Jack” Bishop was wounded but saved by his bulletproof vest.  The suspect 19 year old Raul Garcia-Gomez fled the United States to Mexico and was involved in a lengthy court battle… Continue reading

Cops helping other Cops

Today is Law Day in the U.S. and the theme from the American Bar Association this year, which is the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, is “A Legacy of Liberty”.  As we held our state ceremony at the Colorado Law Enforcement Memorial I thought about all those police officers who have given their lives to create that Legacy of Liberty in the United States and all those still serving who sacrifice their lives and perhaps part of their souls each day Continue reading

The Traumas of Law Enforcement – There is Hope!

As editor of CopsAlive.com I just finished attending the 3-day “Traumas of Law Enforcement” seminar put on by the Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) organization, and despite the depressing nature of what is happening to our profession I left with a sense of hope that there are so many dedicated people out there making things better for those who come after them.  If you are interested in this seminar after reading this blog there are still two more sessions of this valuable program still to be presented this month but you must act fast by visiting the C.O.P.S. website to learn about locations and dates.  There is no registration fee for these programs but registration is MANDATORY!  In our session we had over 110 attendees from around the United States with a variety of sworn and non-sworn personnel including supervisors, chaplains dispatchers and peer support team members. Continue reading

Song about Fallen Officers- “In Memory of…”

My good friends at C.O.P.S. (Concerns of Police Survivors) have let me know about a new song by Derik Schumacher entitled “In Memory of…” about police officers who have fallen in the line of duty.  The song was written by Paul Davis & Derik Schumacher and Derik also Co-produced the song with Charlie Craig.  “In Memory of” is being used as a fund raiser for C.O.P.S. and I encourage your support.

You can download the song by visiting http://www.inmemoryofthem.net/ and if you need any more encouragement visit the blog of stories contributed by family members of those killed in the line of duty.

For more information about C.O.P.S. please visit: http://www.nationalcops.org/