A second Missouri cop — remembered as “care-free” and “loving” — died after struggling accidents in a shooting earlier in the week, native police introduced Saturday.
The Joplin, Mo. officer, Jake Reed, died Friday after a capturing Tuesday within the southwest Missouri metropolis left him hospitalized.
“Yesterday evening Officer Jake Reed continued his service to others as his vital organs were escorted to the airport and flown across the country to give life to others,” the police division wrote in a Facebook post.
“The department escorted Jake’s body to the funeral home past many citizens who exited their vehicles in the roadway and held hands over hearts or saluted us as we passed,” it went on. “May God and our community be with Officer Reed’s family and the recipients of his gifts of life last night.”
Reed, 27, joined the police division in 2017. The division transported Reed’s physique to a funeral house Friday night, when many Joplin residents saluted the procession because it handed by them, in accordance with Joplin police.
Reed’s highschool baseball coach in Arkansas remembered the fallen officer as “care-free” and “loving.”
“He was always smiling and laughing,” Tom Abbot — the baseball coach at Bentonville High School the place Reed graduated in 2013 — told The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. “The smile … that’s what stands out to me the most. Seeing that smile of his.”
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“It’s tragic,” Abbott reportedly added. “There’s a loving, care-free guy serving his community and starting his career, and his life is tragically cut short.”
“He always was smiling or someone was with him laughing. I know he’s loved and he’s going to be missed.”
A 19-year Joplin police officer, Corporal Benjamin Cooper, was additionally killed in Tuesday’s incident, authorities previously announced. The third officer who was shot, Rick Hirshey, was in critical however secure situation.
The Tuesday capturing got here when officers responded to a disturbance about 1:30 p.m. outdoors a retailer on the Northpark Crossing procuring middle, Assistant Police Chief Brian Lewis mentioned in a press launch. Shots have been exchanged and two officers have been injured, he mentioned.
The suspect — 40-year-old Anthony Felix — stole a police automotive and fled, earlier than crashing the automotive and fleeing on foot, police mentioned. Officers then chased him to a road close to an residence advanced and residential space in central Joplin.
There, one other officer and the suspect have been struck by gunfire. Authorities mentioned Capt. William Davis fatally shot Felix, who reportedly had a lengthy criminal history.
With Post wires