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In the summer of 2011, San Diego police officer Jeremy Henwood was shot and killed in the line of duty. The 36-year-old peacekeeper was also a captain in the Marine Reserves and had spent much of his life defending and helping others.
In fact, surveillance footage taken the night he died revealed one final act of sacrifice by Henwood.
Being in harm’s way was pretty much a daily occurrence for Officer Henwood. He had recently returned to his beat from a deployment in Afghanistan; earlier, he had served two tours in Iraq. At his funeral, Police Capt. Lawrence McKinney said Henwood “went boldly into harm’s way, knowing full well that he might not come back someday.”
That day turned out to be August 6, 2011.
On that fateful afternoon, someone stuck a shotgun out of the passenger window of a black Audi and fired point blank into Henwood’s cruiser, striking the policeman in the head. While Officer Henwood was rushed to Mercy Hospital where he would die several hours later, police from around the city desperately searched for the cold-blooded killer. The assailant was quickly found – just three blocks away – and was killed reaching for the same shotgun used to murder Henwood.
Officer Henwood’s funeral was a very public one with several thousand people pausing to remember a fallen hero. But it was Police Chief Bill Lansdowne that best captured the legacy left by Jeremy Henwood. Lansdowne reported that surveillance footage taken from a nearby McDonalds revealed how Officer Henwood spent the final moments of his life: standing at the fast food counter, buying a hamburger for a timid 10-year-old boy who was short on cash.
Jeremy Henwood will be forever remembered by the act of kindness he showed a stranger.
How will you be remembered?
Click here for the online report.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Death
Evidence
Help
Hero
Kindness
Legacy
Military
Murder
Police
Sacrificial
Violence
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
