Two deputies were killed in a long and deadly standoff on Thursday, authorities said — the latest in a deadly string of attacks on law enforcement officers that have ended with the deaths of four cops in three days.
In North Carolina, Sgt. Chris Ward and K-9 Deputy Logan Fox were fatally shot after being dispatched to a home on Wednesday morning after the Boone, N.C., homeowner and his family didn’t report to work or answer telephone calls. The county sheriff’s office said both male officers were killed at the scene, and that the suspect reportedly appeared to have killed himself, his mother and stepfather.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, there have been 117 on-the-job deaths of officers this year, 21 of them involving gunfire or stabbing, as law enforcement officers deal with troubling crime spikes — and increasing pressure for reform, including defunding calls, in the wake of the police-involved deaths like that of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
On Tuesday, NYPD officer Anastasios Tsakos, 43, a 14-year veteran and dad of two, was mowed down and killed — struck by a passing vehicle while diverting traffic from a previous fatal crash on the Long Island Expressway in Queens.
The accused drunk driver, Jessica Beauvais, 32, of Hempstead, N.Y., was taken into custody. She was allegedly intoxicated and had a suspended license.
Beauvais allegedly made statements admitting to drinking vodka, tequila, and wine and smoking pot in the hours before the incident. Prosecutors say Beauvais, who hosts a podcast critical of police, had recorded an episode, posted it to Facebook and then hit the road, ABC’s New York City affiliate reported. The podcast reportedly included playing the N.W.A. rap song “F**k tha Police.”
When she was led from the precinct where she was booked, Beauvais sobbed she was “sorry.”
Beauvais faces charges including two counts of vehicular manslaughter and DWI. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
“We stand here this morning reminded once again, in law enforcement, there is no such thing as a routine job,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said. “We stand here devastated and trying to pick up the pieces of what is a shattered home and a shattered NYPD family.”
The troubling run of cop killings also includes that Delaware police officer, Cpl. Keith Heacook, a 22-year veteran of the Delmar Police Department, who died Wednesday — days after he was attacked while responding to a fight, NBC’s Philadelphia affiliate reported.
“These are the worst moments any of us can imagine: mourning the loss of a member of our law enforcement family,” Delaware Department of Justice Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a statement, NBC reported.
“Cpl. Heacook served his Department and his community honorably and faithfully for more than two decades — a family man, a public servant, and a protector of his community until his final days.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Newmax
