Tag Archives: Gunfire

At about 1:25 a.m. on July 30, 2024, Deputy Sheriff Rafael Wordlaw was sitting in a car while a friend pumped gas. Then an armed robbery began. Wordlaw was off duty, but the badge had shaped the kind of person who could not simply watch someone else face danger alone. He intervened, and the violence that followed took his life at 31. Wordlaw served the Cook County Sheriff’s Office - Department of… Read more

Master Deputy Sheriff Bradley Michael Link of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office died from gunfire on August 3, 2024. At 28, the Army Reserve veteran had served approximately six years in law enforcement. During a response near Eustis, his return of fire enabled other deputies to escape. Read more

On August 17, 2024, Paulding County lost Deputy Sheriff Brandon Tyler Cunningham. He was 30 years old. The loss is difficult to measure because a life is more than a date, a badge number, or a line in a memorial record—but those facts still make the absence painfully clear: Cunningham should have had more years to live, serve, and return home. Cunningham wore badge number 1169 and had served the Paulding County… Read more

On September 6, 2024, Phoenix lost Police Officer Zane Tristan Coolidge. He was 29 years old, five years into his service with the Phoenix Police Department, and known in the public record by badge number 10914. His end of watch came through gunfire, leaving behind a silence that no badge, shift, or memorial can make whole. The facts are stark, but they are not small. Officer Coolidge responded to reports of a… Read more

Philadelphia lost Police Officer Jaime Junior Roman not in some distant chapter of service, but in the middle of a duty that asks officers to step toward uncertainty. He was 31 years old when gunfire ended the future he still had every right to live. His badge, 6064, now carries a sorrow no number can contain. Roman died on September 10, 2024, from wounds suffered during a traffic stop nearly three months… Read more

On September 16, 2024, Russell County lost Deputy Sheriff Joshua C. Phipps. He was 38 years old, carried badge 1442, and had given three years to the Russell County Sheriff’s Office. The facts are stark: he was shot and killed while pursuing a fleeing suspect, leaving behind a department, a community, and everyone who knew the shape of his presence with an absence that cannot be repaired. Deputy Phipps was assisting the… Read more

At 26, Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martinez had already given nearly three years to public service after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. Gunfire took his life during a traffic stop on November 4, 2024, leaving the 6th District, Gresham, and the people who knew him to bear a loss no badge can measure. Read more

A life ended in gunfire on November 26, 2024, and Greenville lost more than a uniformed officer. Cooper Steven Dawson was 28 years old—a young public servant whose future was still unfolding when it was violently taken away. His death leaves grief that cannot be reduced to a badge number, a line in a report, or the final date recorded beside his name. Dawson served with the Greenville Police Department as Police… Read more

On November 29, 2024, Oak Park lost Detective Allan Reddins. He was 40 years old. The loss is difficult to measure because a badge number can be recorded, a rank can be listed, and an End of Watch can be entered into a memorial—but none of those facts can contain the life that ended when gunfire took him from the community he served. Reddins had given five years to the Oak Park… Read more

A community should never have to learn a young officer’s name this way: through the permanence of an End of Watch, through the silence left where a living person should still be. Officer Jacob Candanoza of the Terrell Police Department was 28 years old when gunfire took his life on December 8, 2024. He had served only four months, but the shortness of that time does not make his sacrifice small. It… Read more