Drugs Are Deadly Danger to Officers

In the Line of Duty

Back in the early '90s, Washington, DC, had earned a dubious distinction. Averaging more than one homicide a day, the nation’s capital was being called the “murder capital.” Most of those deaths were either directly, or indirectly related to drugs.

Amazingly, though, for four years during the peak of that drug-related violence there was not a single DC police officer killed in the line of duty. But, that record came to a tragic end on December 30, 1993.

As most DC-area residents were celebrating the holidays with family and friends, Metropolitan Police Officer Earline Harris and her partner, Officer Jason White, had volunteered to work the late-night shift in a dangerous section of southeast DC. Riding in their unmarked patrol car around 9 pm, they spotted a man they wanted to question about an earlier crime. As the man walked up the steps of a suspected crack house, Officer White identified himself as a police officer and asked the man to stop. Instead, the suspect turned and opened fire.

Officer White, 25, was knocked down, but not seriously injured by the first two bullets, which were stopped or slowed by his bullet-resistant vest. Officer Harris was also shot, but she, too, was saved by her body armor. Then, in a savage display of cowardice, the gunman stood over Officer White and fired four more shots from a range of 6 to 18 inches. Officer White, a three-year police veteran, died on the spot. Within minutes of the shooting the assailant was arrested, carrying 13 rocks of crack cocaine.

The records of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC, show that 337 officers have been killed by individuals under the influence of narcotics, including 104 during just the last decade. But, countless others have died directly and indirectly as a result of the war on drugs in our country.

The first such case occurred on January 7, 1878, when Lewis County (KY) Deputy Sheriff John Ruggles was shot and killed by a notorious gang leader who had been taking drugs.

Trooper Michael Haynes

Five officers were killed in 2009 by individuals who were suspected to be under the influence of narcotics. They included Trooper Michael Haynes of the Montana Highway Patrol; Sergeant Steven May of the Modesto (CA) Police Department; Detention Sergeant Ronnie Brown of the Polk County (FL) Sheriff’s Office; Captain Dennis Cagle of the Henderson (TN) Police Department; and Officer Christopher Marano of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Some, like New York City Police Officer Eddie Byrne, were simply assassinated because they were cops. On February 26, 1988, Officer Byrne, 22, was brutally gunned down while sitting in his patrol car guarding the home of a witness in a drug case. Prosecutors said the hit was ordered from behind bars by a jailed druglord who was seeking revenge for his arrest. The man wanted a cop dead—any cop—and the killers were to split $8,000 for the job.

Officer Larry Bullock

Larry D. Bullock, an investigator with the Durham (NC) Police Department was shot and killed during a drug raid on April 29, 1976. His killer was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison. Justice, however, was not to be served in this case. After only serving 16 years of the sentence, Investigator Bullock’s killer was released from prison, only to be arrested and imprisoned again for drug trafficking.

Albert J. Mallen Sr., a detective with the New Jersey State Police, had 14 years of distinguished service under his belt when he was handed one of the biggest narcotics cases in the history of the state. The focus of the investigation was a modest home in a New Jersey suburb, which was suspected of being a multi-million dollar methaphetimine laboratory controlled by organized crime in the Philadelphia and Atlantic City area. A drug raid was launched on the evening of August 28, 1985. As police executed the search warrant, a 58-year-old drug dealer fired a shotgun blast at close range and killed Detective Mallen. He was the first plainclothes member of the New Jersey State Police ever to be killed in the line of duty.   

On March 22, 1989, members of the Alexandria (VA) Police Department’s elite Special Operations Team surrounded a house where a man had taken five hostages. The hostage-taker was an escaped felon who was high on crack cocaine and PCP. Carrying a sawed-off shotgun, he had gone to the Alexandria residence to collect on a drug debt.

Over the next couple of hours, the hostages were released one by one. Only a single hostage remained. It looked like the situation was nearing a peaceful end. But the man surprised police by exiting the house with a gun pointed at the head of his hostage. He confronted two officers who had positioned themselves nearby. A police sniper was ordered to shoot the hostage-taker. The sniper’s bullet struck the man squarely in the back—a perfect hit. However, his death was not as immediate as it should have been. The drugs had seemingly given him superhuman strength and he survived just long enough to get off two quick shotgun blasts.

The first struck and killed Corporal Charlie Hill, a highly respected 13-year veteran of the department. The second blast ripped into the legs of Officer Andy Chelchowski, who was severely injured. 

While he returned to the job he loved, Officer Chelchowski never fully recovered from the physical and emotional pain that resulted from the shooting and the loss of his partner. Four years after the incident, Officer Chelchowski walked into the woods behind his home and committed suicide.

Officer Charlie Hill

Charlie Hill left behind a wife, Ginny, and two young sons, Charlie, 7, and Robert, 3. On March 5, 2010—21 years after his father’s death—Robert Hill was sworn in as a member of the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Dana Lawhorne gave me one of the great honors of my life when he handed me the badge to present to Robert. With his mother and stepfather, Richard, looking on, I presented Robert with his badge, telling him there was no greater tribute he could give his father than to follow in his footsteps, carrying on his proud tradition of law enforcement service.