S.F. cop plays taps to honor fallen officers
Patrolman Mark Lundin is a sniper on the Specialist Team, but that is not the specialty that makes him unique to the San Francisco Police Department.
Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle SFPD patrolman and trumpeter Mark Lundin plays taps at police officers' funerals.
Lundin is also the department specialist when it comes to playing taps, the slow and mournful bugle call that puts a somber end to Memorial Day ceremonies and funerals for soldiers and police officers killed in the line of duty. It was one of these tragedies, in 1994, that compelled Lundin to pick up the trumpet that he hadn’t played in public since he was in the marching band at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto in the 1970s.
“The word got around that I knew how to play taps,” he says, “and I’ve been the go-to guy ever since.”
Officer is grateful to be alive
Robert Roger was hit in the chest with a 9 mm hollow point bullet.
Officer Robert Roger compares getting shot through his bulletproof vest to getting hit with a baseball bat with a spike at the end.
A baseball-size bruise on his torso is still sore, but the San Angelo police officer knows the alternative would have been fatal.
It was four years to the day after his police academy graduation that Roger found himself face-to-face with a shooter holding a semi-automatic handgun, which he later learned held 9 mm hollow point bullets.
Roger said he had just started his shift for a traffic enforcement program on Monday when he began a chase that ended with gunfire. He had nearly left his bulletproof vest at home, thinking it would be a quiet day.
“I was trying to stop this guy for an expired registration and went to turn on my lights and he took off,” Roger said. “We went on a little tour of the south side of San Angelo.”
At the point when both speeding cars reached nearly 110 mph, Roger said he backed off slightly to avoid “getting too reckless.”
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
Spartanburg Sheriff Wins Top Honor
Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright has been awarded the top honor of the year.
The South Carolina Sheriff’s Association chose Wright as Sheriff of the Year 2010 from 46 sheriffs statewide.
Wright will be honored at the SCSA annual conference banquet on July 14 at the Crown Plaza at Hilton Head, S.C.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
Tempe Police Officer Tells Story of Near-Death
A Tempe Police officer had a very close call Tuesday while responding to an apartment fire. He rushed into a burning apartment building, trying to save lives, when the roof collapsed around him.
Sgt. Dan Masters nearly lost his own life in the process. Masters ran into the burning building without any protective gear.
The last thing he remembers is the roof falling down, then waking up on the bottom floor.
“Your training kicks in but that was the first time that I thought I could die,” recalls Masters. Checking out the damage on Wednesday, he says, “I was reminded very clearly by the fire marshal how lucky I was.”
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE/VIDEO HERE
Rome police officer a ‘Real Hero’
Rome PD Officer Donald Moore
The off-duty Rome Police officer that ended a potentially fatal rampage of a gunman at a New York Mills AT&T store Thursday is a graduate of Oneida High School.
Class of 2003 graduate Donald Moore was a customer at the store when 79-year-old Utica resident Abraham Dickan opened fire with a .357 magnum handgun. AT&T employee Seth Turk was shot once in the abdomen. After shots were fired, Moore used his personally-owned handgun to shoot and kill Dickan, Lt. Troy Little of the New York State Police said.
Dickan had six employees on his list to harm or kill, Little said. Police confirmed that the gunman had been previously banned from the store.
New York Mills Police Chief Robert Swenszkowski and Whitestown Police Chief Donald Wolanin were the first on the scene.
An autopsy will be done to discover how many shots were fired at Dickan and where he was hit. New York State Troopers are continuing to investigate the incident. It is unknown at this time how many shots Dickan fired.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
Laid-off officers, residents rally to bring Flint police back to job
Activists, laid-off police officers and residents who’ve had their own brushes with violent crime waved signs in front of city Thursday afternoon rallying to bring the 46 Flint police officers who have been laid off back to the job.
“These guys lay their lives down,” said “Sarge” James Everett, 50, a local activist and Flint native. “There’s not too many people who do that.”
Flint police officers union President Keith Speer said the rally was in response to a rash of homicides and talk of bringing in the National Guard to aid police.
“We’re here to say bring the officers back, and not bring the National Guard,” Speer said.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE/PIC HERE
Sheriff gets new K-9 unit for South County
A new team at the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is hoping to take a bite out of crime in South Montgomery County.
Deputy David Everton of the District 2 Patrol office recently teamed up with Ranger, a canine trained in tracking, apprehension and drug detection.
With a single bite, the 80 pound German Shephard can take down a large man on the run, or use his powerful nose to find drugs hidden in a car.
But when not around bad guys targeted by his partner, Ranger is very social dog ready to visit children in schools or to find someone lost in the woods.
“He adds to the community by being able to track down a fugitive or to find a lost child,” Everton said. “He makes neighborhoods safer. Not only does he protect me, but he protects the community. He knows the difference between people who are in fear of him and people who are hurt. When we arrived at the scene, just by his presence, suspects will do the right thing. They say ‘just don’t let the dog bite me.’”
Lt. Ken Culbreath of the Montgomery County Sheriff Training Academy in Conroe has seen both sides of Ranger. He recently stood in as the suspect during a training session, and he spent time with the dog during routine patrol.
“It is very intimidating when a dog heads you way,” Culbreath said. “This particular dog is very, very strong, which add to the safety for the officer. He is a very, very strong dog and can easily take a large man.”
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE/PIC HERE
Students earns K-9 naming rights
A Pinellas Park Elementary School student won a contest to name the city’s new K-9 dog.
Denylson Alvarez, a fifth grader in teacher Jeannine Oldani’s class, named the new K-9 Tank because “tanks go to battle with no worries.
“They (tanks) protect the soldier and a dog does mostly the same,” Alvarez wrote. “It enters the situation with no worries. They catch the guilty and protect the handler and the people.”
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE/PIC HERE
For Dallas police, show must go on
In Detroit, film crews have been banned from running with officers on police raids. Dallas police say they’re still willing to cooperate with TV shows such as The First 48 and SWAT.
DETROIT BLUES: Detroit’s mayor ordered a ban on TV crews a little more than a week after a police officer accidentally shot a 7-year-old girl during a raid. A crew with the A&E reality television show The First 48 was filming the officers when they entered a duplex where Aiyana Stanley-Jones was killed.
DALLAS LOOKIN’ GOOD: Dallas police also have been featured on The First 48, as well as the A&E show SWAT. The reality programs generally painted the Police Department in a positive light, providing good publicity for the city and showing viewers how and why police do their jobs.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
Midvale Police get ready to train new K9 officer
A few weeks after learning it’s police dog had a career ending eye disease – Midvale Police have a new dog that’s ready for training.
After 100 hours of training police learned that their new K9 officer – Kuno – had developed progressive retinal atrophy. Sgt. Chad Egan said the dog was “blind in one eye and starting to go blind in the second eye.” The California company that supplied Kuno to Midvale Police offered to exchange the dog for a new one. But after officers took Kuno back to California the company gave them a new police dog, named Falco, and let an Midvale officer keep Kuno as a family pet.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
Share this Blog
