CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Friday marks a decade since a Charleston Police officer was killed in the line of duty.
“I was actually a detective at the time and was called out that night,” remembered Sgt. Doug Paxton, now the chaplain for Charleston Police, about the night Patrolman Jerry A. Jones died.
“It was chaotic. It was shocking. You remember the feeling that you had that we’ve lost one of our brothers and there’s no way to really describe that.”
On Sept. 13, 2009, another officer accidentally shot Patrolman Jones in gunfire after a high-speed pursuit that ended with a suspect using his pickup truck to ram multiple police cruisers.
The suspect, Brian Good, was killed.
At the time, Jones was 27 and had been with the department for three years.
“It’s just hard to believe it’s been ten years already,” Paxton said of Jones’ death.
On Friday morning, he and others, including Jones’ mother, Beverly Jones, and Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin, were scheduled to be part of an 8:30 a.m. memorial ceremony at the Charleston Police Training Facility, 917 Quarrier Street.