when the bell tolls...

over at gypsywomanworld, on september 6, i did a post on the tragic and untimely death of a young police officer, chad spicer, who is known to my family here in delaware - subsequently, we have learned of the ironies associated with his death in the line of duty - below are those tidbits as i know them:

the day he was shot and killed, his own patrol car had broken down and was in the shop - he had just gotten word that it was ready to be picked up when the call came in for a possible shooting at a local mcdonald's - another officer told him to jump into his patrol car and they would both take the call - which meant that officer spicer was riding "shotgun" with his buddy, the other officer, driving -

the police officers pursued the suspects and pulled up beside the car when they apprehended them - just as the officers were attempting to exit the patrol car, one of the [three] suspects, as he fled from his car, fired over his shoulder toward the officers - the shot hit officer spicer in the head before he could even draw his weapon fully - with his door open, he fell to the ground - a fragment of this same bullet exited the body of officer spicer, ricocheting and striking the other officer in the neck - while officer spicer did not survive, the other officer did and has now been released home from the hospital -

this happened at about 6:45 pm on tuesday - wednesday morning would have been the one year anniversary of his having been hired by the police department - officer spicer is the first and only officer of the georgetown police department to have been killed in the line of duty -

for the services of officer spicer, it is reported that thousands of police officers from as many as 100 law enforcement agencies across the united states came to pay their respects -