Two police officers die in my hometown

[Tractors4u]

Two police officers in my hometown of Athens Alabama were ambushed and murdered yesterday. I knew Officer Mims from being in the same National Guard unit at one time. SGT Russell I would see at a local gas station once or twice a week on my way to work. Here is a link to the story.

Police Officers

 

[RonL]

Sad. Very Sad.

 

[Mark_in_NH]

I think Mr Barksdale needs to be marched out back to a large hole in the ground where one well placed round would do society a world of good.

 

[MossRoad]

We had two officers killed in the next town over about 3 weeks ago. The person that did it was wounded in the scuffle and killed himself.

Then about a week and a half ago an officer over towards Chicago was responding to a car stalled on an off ramp. When he drove up he saw someone walking up the ramp. He drove up to the person and that person alledgedly shot him. He died. The car was stolen. The perpetrator was captured.

Very tragic for all people involved. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[rdam]

Please keep these incidents in mind if and when you deal with law enforcement.

We NEVER KNOW who we're dealing with.
We DON'T KNOW your a good guy.

Stolen cars do break down.
Murderers and rapists get pulled over for speeding.
Psychos with rifles call to "talk" to the police.

Check this web page. www.odmp.org

 

[Taylortractornut]

Brent I heard about the shootings, I was passing through Athens. My friend that was riding with me knew officer Mims very well.

 

[frank_f15]

i can especially relate to this sad story as my son is a police officer. what possible reason could he have for killing 2 officers that were there to help?

 

[Tractors4u]

More news stories are coming out. One local paper says the shooter was previously diagnosed with paranoid schytsophrenia (sp). It also said the shooter was planning on a police shooting suicide. You know, he would come out with a gun and the police would shoot him. There is no telling. I went to same school and knew the shooters older brother. Both boys had their problems. Divorced parents, drinking and some drugs. I had not seen either one in at least 15 years.

I go to church with two Athens police officers and one of them is really shook up. It seems that he was having his lunch when the call came in and he was going to take it when Mims told him he would handle it. A few minutes later Russell said something didn't seem right so he went also.

This has really shook up our small town. Athens is a small town of 19,000. It only became a wet city last month and the county is still dry. I think there are only 40 full time police officers and out of those I knew 6 of them personally, now only 5. Friday when it happened they didn't release Mims's name until next of kin could be notified. I was sitting there waiting and praying that it wasn't somebody I knew. There was a news conference and I spotted one officer I knew. Then a shot of the scene of the shooting showed another, the guy from church. Then during the 6 o'clock news they announced the other. Even though I didn't know Tony Mims that well it was still a shock. This has hit our small town hard. The last time a police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty was 1968 or 69. Tonight as I drove by the police department there where flowers scattered in front of the entrance.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Brent you have my condolences. In the early eighties Riverside California had two officers assassinated.

I watched the police department go through some real heck for the next couple of months.

What I'd suggest for you to do would be to encourage the community to embrace and protect your police department. By the very nature of the job police departments become a tight knit community within the community. The us versus them that's natural with the job is exaggerated by such a catastrophe.

I'd suggest some rummage and bake sales etc. It might seem like small efforts but what is important is they are efforts and it allows the average citizen to participate. The average citizen doing their small part is what's good for the citizen and it's even better for the moral of the average officer and his family.

What a tragedy. I hope this works to bring the community together, a good thing, the silver lining on the darkest of clouds.

 

[dmccarty]

What is strange is that when you first made this post about this
situation over the weekend I had just looked at a couple of
news web sites and not a word about the shooting. I still have
not seen any stories except for what has been mention on TBN.
Usually a double murder would get mentioned......

It sounds like an attempted suicide by cop and the cops lost....
8-(

In a rural county near us they have had two police shootings
this week. The first one an officer was shot in the arm but will
be ok. The second shooting an officer had to shoot a man who
threatened his family and went after the officers with a rifle. It
was a suicide by cop.

The other side of this as you are seeing is the impact on the
surviving officers. Hopefully the deptartment has implimented
procedures to deal with the situation. If not other officers can
be casualties as if they where part of the shooting..... 8-(

I know a few officers that have been shot or had to shoot. The
person before the incident is not the same person after the
shooting. Some are "ok", some are not "ok", and all had a
real tough time and a long recovery. Harv's suggestion is a
great idea.

Help out the other officers and the families as best as can be
done.....

Later,
Dan McCarty