US Police Officer Dies Days After Being Attacked While Responding to Fight

davetherave

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/delaware-police-officer-dies-days-after-being-attacked-while-responding-to-fight/2795910/

On Sunday, shortly after 5 a.m., Heacook responded to the 1100 block of Buckingham Drive in the Yorkshire Estates Community in Delmar, Delaware, for a report of a fight in progress.

A 911 caller reported a man, later identified as Randon Wilkerson, 30, was being disorderly, fighting with other residents inside the house and destroying items inside the home. Moments later, a separate 911 call was made by a neighbor of the original caller across the street claiming he and his wife had been attacked by a man who was no longer in the house.

When Heacook arrived at the home, he was confronted by Wilkerson, investigators said.

The dispatcher on the line with Heacook tried checking on him but received no response. Additional officers, including a state trooper and a Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office deputy, were dispatched and found Heacook unconscious inside the home, according to officials.

They rendered first aid, and Heacook was rushed to TidalHealth in Salisbury before being transferred to R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with “significant” head injuries.

As police investigated, they found an elderly couple who had also been assaulted across the street. Investigators said their attack was related to the first, and the couple was rushed to area hospitals, with one also transferred to R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center.

https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2021/05/10/slain-delmar-police-corporal-keith-heacook-funeral/

“They try to bring order to chaos and peace to scenes of violence and destruction. That’s what Cpl. Heacook was doing that fateful night,” Carney said.

Heacook was the only officer on duty with the Delmar Police Department early in the morning on April 25, when he was called to respond to a fight in progress. The assailant, 30-year-old Randon Wilkerson, had already brutally attacked an elderly couple.

In the fight, the corporal was injured. He was taken to Shock Trauma, but died a few days later.

Another senseless killing. He was kept on life support for a number of days for organ donation purposes and has left a wife and a 12 year old boy without a husband and father.

tdf7187

Still can't understand why we don't have a generic 'bad stuff happened in America' thread.

hawley

This is incredibly sad. Why was the officer sent on this dispatch by himself? The perp was just attacking people at random. We need to see the footage of what happened but it seems like Wilkerson was under the influence of drugs. I'm very sorry that this had to happen.

Baggly

tdf7187 wrote: »

Still can't understand why we don't have a generic 'bad stuff happened in America' thread.

Mod

Why would you even click into a thread if this was going to be your contribution? Dont like the threads? Ignore them!

BurntAsh

In fairness there was no way to know it was another American story before clicking into the thread...

Baggly

BurntAsh wrote: »

In fairness there was no way to know it was another American story before clicking into the thread...

Thats fair.

Mod

Thread title updated

punisher5112

Only one officer on duty, that's utterly nuts....
Poor man, there is no way in this day and age they should be alone, domestic calls and traffic stops are the biggest killers of law enforcement.

This is exactly why more will die as they will be afraid to use force or even their weapons on a unarmed suspect....

Someone without a weapon can kill just as easy as one with one.

hawley

punisher5112 wrote: »

Only one officer on duty, that's utterly nuts....
Poor man, there is no way in this day and age they should be alone, domestic calls and traffic stops are the biggest killers of law enforcement.

This is exactly why more will die as they will be afraid to use force or even their weapons on a unarmed suspect....

Someone without a weapon can kill just as easy as one with one.

Whomever was on dispatch should be accountable for this. There was a very dangerous incident in progress and they send in one officer. The perp was a lot younger and fitter than the officer.

punisher5112

hawley wrote: »

Whomever was on dispatch should be accountable for this. There was a very dangerous incident in progress and they send in one officer. The perp was a lot younger and fitter than the officer.

He was the only officer on duty, that's crazy in itself....

Wonder what keyboard warriors would be onto say unarmed man shot down in cold blood.... Only thing I see wrong here is the officer didn't actually get a chance to do so and he would be at home safe....

Such a waste of a life.

That scum bag should be put down.

Overheal

punisher5112 wrote: »

He was the only officer on duty, that's crazy in itself....

Wonder what keyboard warriors would be onto say unarmed man shot down in cold blood.... Only thing I see wrong here is the officer didn't actually get a chance to do so and he would be at home safe....

Such a waste of a life.

That scum bag should be put down.

If convicted of murdering a police officer, the fact that the victim is a police officer will be an aggravating factor in sentencing, and in some jurisdictions does put the felon in line for capital punishment.

However the Supreme Court of Delaware found in 2016 that the State's capital punishment statute was unconstitutional, tldr because the Judge, not the Jury, was statutorily the ultimate arbiter of whether the death penalty applied. No updated statute has been passed, and so Delaware does not practice capital punishment:

The 148-page ruling showed a clear split between the state's five justices. Justice Karen Valihura concurred in part and dissented in part, while Justice James T. Vaughn Jr. dissented outright from the rest of the bench.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. said that Delaware's current law violates the Sixth Amendment requiring a jury to unanimously and independently make factual findings before sentencing a defendant to death.

Previously, a jury had to unanimously agree the evidence showed beyond a reasonable doubt a person found guilty of first-degree murder fit at least one of 22 statutory aggravating factors.

Then, each juror has to decide whether the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors. That decision did not need to be unanimous, and the judge was not bound by the findings. Thus, the judge had the final authority in sentencing someone to death.

“Our statute cannot stand," Strine wrote. "And to put my opinion in more basic terms, I embrace the notion that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury extends to all phases of a death penalty case, and specifically to the ultimate sentencing determination of whether a defendant should live or die."

"Although states may give judges a role in tempering the harshness of a jury or in ensuring proportionality, they may not execute a defendant unless a jury has unanimously recommended that the defendant should suffer that fate," he added.


Strine wrote that this upholds a historic tradition of juries being the only ones who can send a defendant to the "gallows."

"The jury's historical role as an important safeguard against overreaching in the most critical of contexts was recognized at the founding, and prevails in most states today, making our own state one of thew few outliers," he said.

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2016/08/02/court-delawares-death-penalty-law-unconstitutional/87963012/

hawley

Overheal wrote: »

If convicted of murdering a police officer, the fact that the victim is a police officer will be an aggravating factor in sentencing, and in some jurisdictions does put the felon in line for capital punishment.

However the Supreme Court of Delaware found in 2016 that the State's capital punishment statute was unconstitutional, tldr because the Judge, not the Jury, was statutorily the ultimate arbiter of whether the death penalty applied. No updated statute has been passed, and so Delaware does not practice capital punishment:



https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2016/08/02/court-delawares-death-penalty-law-unconstitutional/87963012/

I'm not in favor of capital punishment, but hopefully he gets a very long sentence. He was out of control and the police officer was the unlucky one because he could have killed anyone.