Faith Based Security Network

Think About it -- Fallen Officer Incidents Related to Church

  2. Share
Faith Based Security NetworkFaith Based Security Network
1 3

Last week was National Police Week with one day specifically set aside as the National Peace Officers Memorial Day to honor officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

As the FBSN has monitored the most deadly actions at faith-based organizations through the years, we felt it appropriate to honor officers whose end of watch was connected to a faith based organization. Here are the ones we have observed through our deadly force incident study complete up through 2020.

Patrol Officer Jaimie Joseph Alan Cox

Rockford (IL) Police Department

End of Watch: 11/05/2017     Age: 30

Officer Jaimie Cox stopped a vehicle with illegal tags, but then something went wrong. Cox was found with fatal blunt force trauma wounds by where the offender’s truck had struck a tree on the property of the Unitarian Universalist Church. The offender was in the truck dead of gunshot wounds from Cox.

 

Correctional Officer Jayme Lee Biendl

Washington State Department of Corrections

End of Watch: 1/29/2011       Age: 34

 

Officer Biendl was assigned to the prison Chapel where she was strangled to death by an inmate attempting to escape.

 

Police Chief Ralph Arthur Painter

Rainier (OR) Police Department

End of Watch: 1/5/2011         Age:55

 

That Wednesday morning, the Assembly of God pastor heard loud shouts outside his window in the parking lot of the commercial complex they share with other businesses. Then a bullet came through the window he had just looked through, so he and others ran to the other end of the church. Police Chief Ralph Painter was killed by the offender with Painter's own gun in the parking lot shootout.

 

Police Officer Lee Stewart Newbill

Moscow (ID) Police Department

End of Watch: 5/19/2007       Age: 48

 

An abuser killed his wife in their home earlier that day, then drove to the courthouse where he shot several times, luring law-enforcement into a gun battle. He killed the facilities manager as he entered the nearby Moscow Presbyterian Church, then set up a sniper’s roost in the church, overlooking the courthouse parking lot. Officer Newbill died in the shootout.

 

Police Officer Mary Ann Collura

Fair Lawn (NJ) Police Department

End of Watch: 4/17/2003       Age: 43

 

Officer Collura rushed to the aid of a fellow officer struggling with a fleeing felon where he had wrecked his car at the Van Riper-Ellis Baptist Church. The fugitive shot the other officer and Collura, then drove over her as he escaped in her patrol car killing her.

 

Police Officer John Joseph Winn

Lowell (MA) Police Department

End of Watch: 5/3/1971         Age: 58

 

On 12/05/1969, Officer Winn was checking the doors of a church. Two men attacked him when he entered the dark back stairwell to check the door. They beat him with a tire iron. Winn died 17 months later from those injuries.

 

Think About it

 

Sometimes, those who stepped into specific roles of service with the potential for death, have indeed come to that ultimate moment. This is our time to express honor to the law-enforcement officers who’s moment came at a place that should have been sanctuary.

 

We know there is at least one we cannot find details of. A California officer was injured in an attack at a church and died years later from the injury. If anyone knows of that or any other officer that should be added to this list, please let us know by writing [email protected]

Community tags

This content has 0 tags that match your profile.

Community Groups

*Open Forum Discussion

Comments

To view comments or leave a comment, login or sign up.

Related Content

4
Think About it -- Remembering Ron Allen
Death never comes at a good time. This last week, FBSN board member Ron Allen (Troy, Michigan) finished his race and went home. Ron was one of the best men I’ve ever known. I was reminded of something Ron wrote to our Board in 2023. It follows, as written by him. GOD'S CALL TO LEADERS. Morning Prayer Notes 8.24.2023. Ron Allen God will never call us to a work that we can fulfill in our own strength. It will always be bigger than we are. That forces us to rely on Him. When God puts people around us to help fulfill the vision that He has given, if we use them, God gets glory. If we don't use them, that means we don't trust God to fulfill His vision. (ownership of the vision then transfers to us and I don’t want to own God vision). Remember, Its God's vision, not ours. He may have given it to us to carry, shepherd and lead, but it's His vision. God will send resources / people to fulfill His vision. If we are uncomfortable using the resources He has sent, (“no, let me do that”) we limit what God can do with His own work. Our job as leaders, as people who are called by God to lead; Pray that God sends laborers and let them labor when they arrive. Love them and lead them in a godly manner. Teach them what God has taught you. Show them the vision so they can run with the portion God has given them. Trust that God will speak to them and give vision for their area of the work. Give them the latitude to hear from God and go with God, (while we are watching to encourage and correct) Discern when the enemy sends wolves to disrupt the work that God has called us to do. Clear out the wolves and get back to doing the work God has called us to do. If the wolves have inflicted wounds, believe God to heal the wounds and move on. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire without the smell of smoke (don’t let wounds linger)   Think About it We are called into a work that none of us can complete or even perform well on our own. Ron Allen provided the guide for handling that work.
3
Lessons From the Farm (No. 1)
Having moved back to farm country (from where I continue to manage the Faith Based Security Network), there is also the reality of needed work to be done on the farm. Fortunately, there is not (yet) any cropland; the daily duties are centered around making sure the small cow herd is healthy and accounted for. It is rare that I can’t think of the applicability of some farm action to the realm of effective security operations.  Such was the case this week when a neighbor called to see if I could help him out. Helping is just part of common rural hospitality. It’s called “neighboring.” When someone’s ox is in the ditch, you go help them. He owns no oxen, but he did have a few hundred acres of corn to get harvested in a narrow window of time. He needed to keep 3 semis continuously filled as drivers ran the harvested corn to the granaries. He had a 12-row combine working nonstop cutting the corn. The missing link was a man on a tractor to catch the freshly harvested corn out of the combine into a 750 bushel mobile grain cart, then transport that corn to the waiting semis. The inset picture shows the operation and equipment well. He set aside an hour to have one of his workers train me on the tractor and the mobile grain cart. After that I was all alone in a John Deere 8400, 4-wheel drive row-crop tractor.  This wasn’t like driving Dad’s old 2-cylinder John Deeres 50 years ago. This $300,000 monster had a computerized cab more like a cockpit. At 30,000 pounds and 225 horsepower, it was bigger, more powerful and more expensive than any machine I’d ever operated. One hour of training.   Think About it The great late Jeff Cooper said, “Owning a handgun doesn't make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician” (another version quoted him as, “Owning a pistol doesn't make you a pistoleer any more than owning a piano makes you a pianist”). A few hours operating powerful machinery doesn’t make one a farmer either. Is your training commensurate with the tools and the needed actions? How much is a life worth? If you think an hour might be a little light for training on a monster tractor, how much is too light for your tools of protecting life?
Faith Based Security Network
Powered by Cause Machine. All rights reserved.