Police: Texas cop slain trying to protect child

From what I've heard on the local news down here (I live right next to Arlington), the officer was sent to the call which had been classified as Domestic Violence. APD policy generally requires 2 officers to respond to this type of classification-call. Why she was sent solo has not been explained (that I've read).

It's a sad, sad loss for our society.

reply to post by TXRabbit


The article the OP linked talked about that. It was a post domestic, and the suspect left the area and was supposedly not armed. The chief said it was a low priority call based on the info received by dispatch.

15 days or 15 years is irrelevant in this case, as she did her job in a manner that makes us greive and ask why, while at the same time her actions convey a silent message that even as a rookie she did her job in the manner any officer with 30+ years of experience would have done.

I would have no issues having her back me up on any one of my calls, and I would have no problems placing my life in her hands.

There is absolutey nothing that could have been done to change this outcome. Looking for a reason is not going to find one.She knew the risks and performed her job up to the end, giving the last full measure of devotion.

I'm at a loss for words to express the sorrow I'm feeling at this moment. From her picture, she looks like a classmate of mine. This is sad and great loss for the law enforcement community. You won't find many people in any walk of life willing to sacrifice their life for someone else.

She is certainly more than a hero. Rest in Peace Officer Smith. My sympathy goes out to your friends and family.

All you "cop bashers" happy now?

reply to post by SLAYER69

She did her job to "Protect and Serve" She protected the Child with her life. She being a "Female" is really irrelevant. Not being able to handle the stress of the job is irrelevant. She was there DOING her job. She paid the ultimate price for being a Cop and handling the Stress.

How did she protect the child. She "attempted" to protect the child. She foolheartedly, with the best of intentions, sacrificed her life, but did not stop the assailant from murdering the mother and having free reign to murder the child.

All of the things you mentioned are indeed relavent.

Had she been successful, she would have been celebrated for all those qualities and her heroic actions. The fact is she failed.

Still tragic and sad. She is still a great person, and she deserves the honor of a fallen hero, but she probably wasn't the best cop ever.

Much respect to all law enforcement officers, it is an unreasonably difficult job, and they face criticism no matter the outcome. They do their very best I am sure. I mean no disrespect, I just don't want to celebrate an armed police officer using her body as a shield instead of her gun! The outcome should have been better than this.

reply to post by getreadyalready


She did not fail at all. An 11 year old child is alive because of her actions. As I stated before, no amount of training can overcome an X factor. If she had her gun out, its possible she could miss, resulting in the death of everyone, including the 11 year old. The other thing people are ignoring is the fact she was shot and killed. She had body armor on, so im guessing death was not from center mass shots, but extremities or head. Even then a minor through and through that clips an artery and its overwith in a few seconds.

This rationale is going to be difficult for some people who are not leo / military to understand and thats ok. Death in the line of duty while performing ones job is just that, performing her duty. The thought process we all have is self preservation first, others second. The mindset is a bit different on this side of the fence, where death while perorming our job in an effort to save another is in fact doing our job.

We cannot view this incident with 20/20 hindsight. When the # hit the fan, she nutted up and did her job and because of that the child is alive. She could have done anything she could have to distract the guy to save herself and sacrificing the others. Instead, knowing what was going on, knowing the outcome, she did her duty.

reply to post by Xcathdra


I hope you are right, and I hope her actions provided the distraction necessary to have saved that little girl, but what kept the assailant from killing the little girl right after the cop, or right after the mother? Maybe it was the fact that she took the bullets intended for the kid, or maybe he only had enough bullets left to kill himself, or maybe he never intended on killing the kid.

I am really not trying to criticize her actions, I know it is hard. I just don't see where her actions "saved" anybody? There was still an armed man walking around killing people in that home, and the 11 year old girl is alive because the man shot himself.

As I said, her family should be proud, at the very least she gave her life in defense of another. She is a hero in that regard, but from a police or tactical standpoint, I don't think she did a very good job.

reply to post by getreadyalready

She was a rookie and she should've never gone alone to a domestic violence call. Her reaction was purely human and not trained. Had she reacted with what she was taught in training, the child may have possibly lost her life.

Now the child doesn't have a mother and is witness to a murder and suicide.

I can say that domestic violence should never be a "low priority" call since "violence" is the reason for the call.

reply to post by getreadyalready


Your points and quesions are valid, so dont worry. The answer you seek is what I have been saying, which is the hindsight is 20/20.

Looking at what occured while having all of the information present because of media and reports skews the window in which people are looking in on this incident. The thought process is why didnt she lock the door, or have her gun out knowing this guy was dangerous and had priors.

The problem is we know this because we have it all present, while she did not. We have the info in correct order because of an ongoing investigation, while she did not.

Going down the road of she should have done this or that does not accomplish anything to be honest. In the end her actions must be judged at the moment the incident occured. In which case, I beleive she knew what was going to occur the moment he arrived with a gun in his hand, and as a rookie she performed her job and duty as a seasoned vet.

Nettles had convictions for rape of a child, domestic violence, burglary, failure to register as a sex offender and possession of a firearm.

And if we had just fried this human garbage in the electric chair while we had the chance, the child would have never been in danger, and the family of that fallen officer wouldn't be grieving right now.

This guy was the lowest of the lowest form of human life around. Just goes to show that child rape should be a crime punishable by death. Problem solved.

Originally posted by harrytuttle

Nettles had convictions for rape of a child, domestic violence, burglary, failure to register as a sex offender and possession of a firearm.

And if we had just fried this human garbage in the electric chair while we had the chance, the child would have never been in danger, and the family of that fallen officer wouldn't be grieving right now.

This guy was the lowest of the lowest form of human life around. Just goes to show that child rape should be a crime punishable by death. Problem solved

He sounds like a model citizen.

reply to post by getreadyalready


I disagree, by that logic a fireman "Rookie" or not dying while in the line of duty fighting a fire has failed?
They win by being there in the first place where many others would run and hide. I'm not saying she did her job well or even good but she was DOING her job is all.

reply to post by SLAYER69


I totally agree. She made the commitment, she showed up, she made the ultimate sacrifice with the best of intentions, and for that she should be honored.

Maybe they will rethink their priority of Domestic Violence calls, and their policy on sending single officers to violent locations, especially rookie ones.

Originally posted by lewman
could be used as an argument against citezens having guns, but i understand that all th eguns would not dissapear if the laws changed. also you get good and bad people just as you get good and bad police officers and you also get people and police officers that are ok or slightly bad but have some morals and wouldnt like to kill in front of a child. its basically just a horrible story with a horrible or insane person to blame.

i just feel sorry for the child as they have now got no chance of living a normal happy life and has a good chance of turning to drugs when they are older to escape from the pain that this evil man has caused upon her.

This criminal broke the law by having one in the first place... Gun laws stop law abiding people from having/carrying them, not criminals, well because duh, they BREAK the laws.. That is why they are called criminals. It has been proven time and time again that the states/cities with the least amount of restriction on firearms have the least amount of crime.. Do you think this criminal would have thought twice, or have even been killed, if this woman had a firearm? She knew he was pissed and would probably come back, If she was ready for him, he is coming through a door (bottle neck) she would have easily had the advantage in a shoot out like that. If you are legally allowed to own a firearm you are legally allowed/qualified to be a police officer. They are no different than we are.. And I have seen many Leo's at a gun range, drinking beer and/or just being plain unsafe with their firearms. Cops carry them because the job requires it, while most avid citizens actually practice, and shoot, so are generally more safe with them and way better shots accuracy wise.


Deebo

Sincere condolences to her family and friends...

Originally posted by SLAYER69
What the hells wrong with some people?

She did her job to "Protect and Serve" She protected the Child with her life. She being a "Female" is really irrelevant. Not being able to handle the stress of the job is irrelevant. She was there DOING her job. She paid the ultimate price for being a Cop and handling the Stress.

LEOs here at ATS really do take a beating in public opinion and I'll be the first to admit that in many cases they deserve the criticism but in THIS case the SCUMBAG boyfriend should be grilled alive. I have a feeling that if she the COP wasn't there we'd be hearing about 3 killings including the child and one being a suicide or a manhunt in the news for some SCUMBAG who killed a woman and child that's now on the loose being a threat to more innocent people and possibly killing more innocents and or cops trying to make his escape etc.

Please show a little more respect.

edit on 30-12-2010 by SLAYER69 because: (no reason given)

Agreed.

Fact is, we don't know all the FACTS yet; that article was pretty sketchy on details, like did the little girl run away and hide when she heard the gunshot(s) from the bedroom where her mom was being killed?

Did Officer Smith's department screw up by not sending another cop along? I'd say so, because all my cop friends say that domestic situations are the ones they dread most, because they are the most unpredictable.

Case in point: the best man at my wedding was a cop; he once responded solo to a domestic where the husband was beating the hell out of his wife. He cold-cocked him with his baton, and was cuffing him when the wife picks up a steak knife and goes after my friend the cop. He took her down, and both hubby and crazy lady went to jail.

Here's what we do know:

Officer Smith acted to protect the child.

Officer Smith died in the effort.

The child is alive today because of Officer Smith's bravery.

That fits my definition of HERO.

RIP Officer Smith.

I just love how people here can judge the incident from afar:

a) without ever being at the scene
b) without even being law enforcement
c) making assumptions on priority levels of domestics out of thin air
d) making assumptions on "rookies" and their abilities

As an LEO, I can think of 20 things that could have gone wrong which caused her to not be able to act:
- Suspect returned quietly and had planned to also kill the police officer (he may have had a key to UNLOCK THE DOOR)
- Backup on the way but not there yet
- Suspect may have fired from a barricaded position without the officer knowing where it's coming from
- Officer's firearm may have jammed in her holster or other equipment failure
- Officer may have been neutralized on the first shot and not able to return fire

The media can lead us to believe that she shielded the 11 year old, perhaps the little girl hid behind her? Who knows?

I'm a cop and even I can't judge this situation... All I can say is that this is a tragedy, and we lost one of our own...

We are not invincible, perfect, nor different from any other person. We just have a different job which has a different risk factor.

I don't believe that judging the situation with the few facts we have right now is getting anyone anywhere...

To the other LEOs reading : let this situation remind us to stay sharp and stay safe...

Magnum

Such a tragic story.

The officer is a hero in my book. Simple as that.

My thoughts are with her family and the relations of the little girl she gave her life trying to protect at this sad time.


As for the evil scumbag that killed the officer and the wee girls mum. Words fail me when it comes to describing my anger at the vile actions of this twisted monster.

My heart goes out to the officer's family, and to the poor child left behind because of some bottomfeeding childmolesting POS had to ruin not only one family, but two. She (the officer) acted not only as a woman but as an officer of the law, protecting who she could with all she had, her own life. There are good and bad people in all walks of society, in all professions, and this includes law enforcement. When I was younger, I made the mistake of getting involved with a looser 10 years older than myself. I was physically stronger, and with my redheaded nature, I had the upper hand if he was ever foolish enough to incite violence... but the emotional abuse, that was hell. I would talk to a deputy at a gas station when getting coffee, and he would listen to me vent with infinite patience. When things finally came to a head, so to speak, and I called for help, that deputy showed up at my house. Again, with a steady smile and comforting tone, he told me that everything would be okay, and that I was doing the right thing. That looser was a drug abusing waste of flesh, even though at the time I was stupidly in love. One can't tell when a situation will get out of hand. Domestic situations are possibly the most frightening, because you're sitting on a powderkeg.

Domestic calls are definitely the worst. The city I work in (detroit) is always 2 person cars on midnights. Between me or my partner one of us is always on lookout because people will return to cause problems even when they see a Police car there. As was stated before we dont know the whole story, this scumbag could have very well observed one rookie cop go to the call and decided he could handle her.

Originally posted by ANOMALY502
Domestic calls are definitely the worst. The city I work in (detroit) is always 2 person cars on midnights. Between me or my partner one of us is always on lookout because people will return to cause problems even when they see a Police car there. As was stated before we dont know the whole story, this scumbag could have very well observed one rookie cop go to the call and decided he could handle her.

Thank you for wearing the "Blue" That job sucks, and frankly I don't know how anyone could do it.

I think one thing is clear: Officer Smith is a hero, and her loss is incalculable to the good she would have done over her career.

But she saved that child's life.

Who knows? That child might go to school and discover the cure for cancer or something. My mom always told me that nothing happens without a reason.

I honor those who serve and protect as if they were in the service right beside me.

Godbless and keep you cops and firefighters and emts, and return you each night or shift end to those you love.