On April 14, 2024, the Syracuse Police Department lost Officer Michael E. Jensen to gunfire. He was 29 years old. The loss was not only the taking of a public servant, but the sudden removal of a son, brother, friend, colleague, and familiar presence from the lives of people who had expected him to come home. Jensen had served Syracuse for approximately two and one-half years, long enough to become part of… Read more
On April 14, 2024, the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office lost Lieutenant Michael “Hootch” Hoosock to gunfire. He was 37 years old. Behind the rank was a husband, a father of three, and a public servant whose life had been given to protecting others. His death leaves a pain that numbers cannot measure. Sixteen years of service ended in an instant, but the people who loved Michael Hoosock must carry the permanence of… Read more
On April 21, 2024, Luis M. Huesca was shot and killed while returning home from his tour of duty. He was 30 years old. The loss is painful in its starkness: a Chicago Police Department officer had completed his work and was on the way home when gunfire took his life. For the people who knew Officer Huesca, badge 18913 will never be only a number. It will remain tied to a… Read more
On April 24, 2024, Corpus Christi lost Police Officer Kyle Hicks to gunfire. He was 32 years old. Behind the uniform was a husband and a father of four children, a family whose future was changed forever when a public servant did not come home. Officer Hicks had served with the Corpus Christi Police Department for two years. That span may sound brief beside a lifetime, but service is not measured only… Read more
Jacob Derbin was 23 years old when his life was taken in the line of duty. On May 11, 2024, the Euclid Police Department lost a police officer to gunfire, and a family, a department, and a community were left to carry a grief that cannot be measured in years of service. His badge was number 14, but Jacob Derbin was never only a number in a record. He was a young… Read more
Officer Jamal Mitchell was killed by gunfire on May 30, 2024, while responding to a shooting call and attempting to aid someone he believed was injured. Minneapolis remembers a 36-year-old public servant whose approximately two years of service ended in an act of compassionate courage. Read more
Joshua Briese had not yet completed his first year with the Gila River Police Department when his life was taken. He was 23 years old, still completing field training, still learning the work that asks an officer to enter moments of danger so others do not have to face them alone. On June 1, 2024, that unfinished promise became a permanent loss. Officer Briese was shot and killed while responding to a… Read more
Bradley J. Reckling was 30 years old when his life was taken. On June 22, 2024, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office deputy was conducting surveillance related to a stolen vehicle in Madison Heights, Michigan, when gunfire ended a life that had already given approximately nine years to public service. The loss is difficult to measure because a badge records only the outline of a person. It cannot hold the years Bradley spent… Read more
A family, a police division, and a city were left with an absence that cannot be repaired when Police Officer Jamieson Ritter was killed by gunfire on July 4, 2024. He was 27 years old. For the Cleveland Division of Police, he was not a name in a memorial ledger but a fellow officer who had spent four years answering the demands of the badge. Ritter was attempting to help take a… Read more
On July 11, 2024, a family, a law-enforcement community, and Harris County were left carrying a loss that cannot be repaired. Deputy Sheriff Fernando Esqueda was 28 years old when gunfire ended his life while he was doing the work he had chosen: investigating a vehicle connected to an aggravated assault. The facts are brief, but the grief they contain is not. Esqueda had served with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office for… Read more
Heroic Outfitters