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Washingtonpost.com:

Two Harford County sheriff’s deputies were killed in Maryland on Wednesday by an armed man who entered a Panera Bread restaurant at lunchtime.

The gunman was fatally shot by authorities after he shot the two deputies.

Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler announced the deaths of two members of his department Wednesday afternoon.

“They’re both two outstanding deputies who served the citizens of this county for 16 and 30 years respectively,” Gahler said.

He did not identify the deputies because he said their extended families had not been notified.

The sheriff’s office identified the armed man as David Brian Evans, 67. They said that he was wanted on a warrant from Florida for assaulting a police officer there, as well as on a civil writ issued in Harford County.

Gahler said Evans entered a Panera in Abingdon during the busy lunchtime rush Wednesday. At 11:46 a.m., someone called the police to say that a man was behaving suspiciously in the restaurant.

When a deputy arrived, Evans shot the deputy and then ran out the door.

“I think the suspect took that action because he was wearing a police uniform,” Gahler said of the deputy who was shot. “He certainly targeted him.”

People who saw Evans running away pointed authorities in the right direction, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Cristie Kahler said.

Gahler said that a deputy found Evans almost immediately, down the hill from the restaurant. Evans then shot that deputy.

The next two deputies who arrived then fired at the gunman, fatally wounding him. Both of those deputies have been placed on administrative leave while the department investigates the shooting.

Targeted because they were cops!  Cop Lives Matter!   I know nothing about anyone’s race.  It is actually irrelevant.  I know that 2 cops (race unknown to me) were targeted shot and killed by some thug (race unknown to me).  Additionally, the customers in Panera, many who were children, had their lives put in jeopardy, simply because cops were being targeted by a criminal.
We need to remember that these cops just got up and went to work like everyone else.  The difference is, the nature of their job had an embedded danger.  Last night, these two cops didn’t come home.  Yet across the nation, come people are expecting cops to make split second decisions that might or might not be their last thoughts.  Just something to think about.

28 Thoughts to “2 area sheriff deputies targeted, shot, killed”

  1. Starry flights

    A terrible tragedy

  2. Ed Myers

    Taxicab drivers matter! All lives matter! (Waiting for the outrage….)

    I think your swipe at BLM misses their point that young black men are targeted by police because of where they live and their color of skin–things they cannot change. A police office can take off the uniform and instantly remove the target. You can’t retire from being black to escape being a target of discrimination.

    1. Would you feel safe living in a world where there were no cops? Actually your response almost angers me. I have said in nearly every post that I think there are bad cops. Every profession has them. However, I can only thing of 2 jobs were you go out expecting that today might be a good day to die.

      You seem to be expecting all cops to make 100% correct judgement all the time, even though their own lives might be in danger. They are human beings, just like we are. Why can’t you just admit that?

      One final thing–Do you think it is poverty that make some cops act unacceptably or could it be something else?

      Let me be honest here. If I am walking down the street and some preppy looking kids pass me I will walk on. If I see inner city looking kids with loud obnoxious mouths …I will cross the street long before i get to them. So would most people –of any race.

  3. Wolve

    Heard the Harford County sheriff on the radio this p.m. Sounded to me like he said the first deputy was responding to a recognition call to police re the suspect in Panera and, upon arrival, approached the perp and asked him if his name was David Evans. At that point, the perp whipped out a gun and shot the deputy in the head. Bam, bam, just like that. If that is so, it looks like a response killing by a perp about to be nabbed, rather than simply a cop killing because of the uniform per se. At least, that’s the way I think I heard it. Whatever the case, another two are down forever.

    Maybe the time will come when too few will want to put on that uniform at all. Then we are all in big trouble.

    The National Police Memorial needs donations. So do the Virginia Sheriffs’ Association, the Virginia Sheriffs’ Institute, and the Virginia State Police.

    1. I think all over, men and women are reevaluating if this is the correct career path, given the national climate. The same can be said of teachers, for a different reason.

  4. ed myers

    Being a police officer has been a slightly declining risk of death for several decades. The war on cops is a lie.

    Police officers die on the job at a rate of about 3 per 100,000 employees. Compare that to the top 10 deadliest professions below. Police death rates are less than a tenth of these. These are the professions that wish they were cops so they could have a much, much higher chance of coming home to their families alive at the end of the day. Sadly they don’t get near the salary or benefits of a police officer, either.

    Fishing: 127.3
    Loggers: 104
    Pilots: 56.1
    Trash Collectors: 36.4
    Roofers: 34.1
    Steel Workers: 30.3
    Construction Helpers 26.8
    Farmers: 26.1
    Truck Drivers: 25.9
    Miners: 22.1

    1. Oh PUH-leez. Those farmers are out there fearing that they are going to be attacked by sheep and tractors?

      Did I say “open war on cops?” Actually, if you listen to the media and the general population in some sectros of the United States, it sure does sound like cops are not held in high regard. In fact, from your own words on this blog, I get the opinion that you feel that cops are out to kill black people.

      Correct me if I am wrong? Perhaps I have misunderstood you.

  5. Wolve

    Hummph. Death by accident or living every minute of every working day knowing that someone out there, maybe in the next car or just around the corner, would enjoy gunning you down in the street. And that your job is to NOT walk away from such danger.

    Or maybe like running up the stairs of the Twin Towers when everyone else is running down.

    1. +1

      Excellent response, Wolve! You hit the nail on the head.

  6. Wolve

    On a more positive note, deputies in the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office are part of a test program to administer Narcan in emergencies if they encounter someone with an overdose from heroin or other strong drugs. Well, it happened Wednesday. Two deputies answered a call to find a guy in Western Loudoun about to kick the bucket by a heroin overdose. They administered the Narcan. The guy is now in hospital in Leesburg. Hospital authorities say the deputies saved his life. A normal ambulance run would likely not have gotten him there in time.

    1. Excellent. I think its important to also point out that these guys are also going to help people who are doing something incredibly stupid, like using heroin in the first place.

      They really are often heroes.

  7. Ed Myers

    Dead is dead when it comes to a family’s grief and lionizing police officers as though their lives matter more than trash collectors is the sort of discrimination that allows officers to kill over 1000 people a year while “doing their job” and no one is permitted to complain. Fisherman don’t kill others so their sacrifices are pretty selfless in comparison. Every time they get on their boat they know that, maybe in the next squall, the sea will claim their life but their job is not to walk away from that danger.

    Elevating police officers to automatic heroes for getting out of bed is not helpful in creating a safe neighborhood.

    1. How many cop lives are lost a year just doing their jobs? Just recently, we have had the two in Maryland killed by someone who didnt want to be arrested. Another was killed being struck by a drunk driver.

      They are in harms way on a daily basis. There is a war out there in many respects. Criminals and wanna be criminals against law and order. Do you not realize that?

      Who wants to stab or gun down trash collectors?

  8. Ed Myers

    Avoiding people of color when walking down the street is prejudice. Prejudice leads to bad social effects such as high unemployment among black teenagers, black market activities to earn money, riskier life choices, premature death. When police embed a community’s prejudices into police tactics we get disproportionate punishment on minority groups.

    1. Not sure I mentioned race when I talked about crossing the street. I believe I was talking about behaviors. Behaviors are pretty important when doing risk assessment.

      It sure doesn’t look like minority kids aren’t being hired around here. Check out McDonalds, KFC, Liberty.

  9. Wolve

    When a fisherman encounters a squall, he turns his boat around to get away from it, even to the point of returning to port.

    When a police officer sees a “squall,” he has to go right into the middle of it and stop it.

    1. More standing ovation for Wolve. He and I often don’t agree but we sure do on this topic. Go Wolve!!!!

  10. ed myers

    The value of a life or the quality of ones character is not determined by one’s occupation or how one died.

    I realize people who were government employees seem to disagreed. Why do they think their job is a surrogate for asserting their virtuosity? Are they virtuous because they are government employees or is it that by becoming an employee they have proven their virtuosity and want to publicize it as a status symbol to the poor slobs who (presumably) failed at getting such a job.

    1. It has nothing to do with being a government employee.

      Very few people choose to go into law enforcement or the military.

      Ask yourself this question: Where would you be if no one chose to serve in that capacity.

  11. ed myers

    (Here’s the stats that show that police are really pretty safe in comparison to other occupations where robbers target people because of their job.)

    “The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) reports that a total of 1,501 law-enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the past ten years, an average of one death every 58 hours, or 150 per year. ”

    539 were shot. 434 died in a car accident. So about 50 police per year are killed by gunshots.

    “Over the past 5 years, 2004-08, an average of 564 work-related homicides occurred each year in the United States. In 2008, a total of 526 workplace homicides occurred, or 10 percent of all fatal work injuries. About 4 out of every 5 homicide victims in 2008 were male. The type of assailants in these cases differed for men and women. Robbers and other assailants made up 72 percent of assailants for men, and 51 percent of assailants for women. Relatives and other personal acquaintances accounted for only 4 percent of assailants of homicides for men, but 28 percent for women”

    1. There is targeting and then there is targeting. The stats are good that cops are often in the wrong place at the wrong time by virtue of the fact that they ARE cops. I wouldn’t want to be a fire fighter either.

  12. Wolve

    1,501 trained and dedicated cops over ten years is a serious loss to the safety of all of us. You can add to that the unseen number of those who may have decided to leave the profession (or not to join it at all) because they felt they could no longer take the pressure of being a constant target or because a spouse could not bear sitting at home in constant fear wondering if and when the bad news would come.

    And imagine what the numbers in #20 para 3 might look like if our cops are dissed and scorned and targeted enough that many begin to consider turning in their badges and guns to look for a different way to make a living.

  13. Ed Myers

    It is the belief that police must not be criticized that allows bad cops to exists and to behave badly. Nearly half of those fatalities were because of traffic accidents and things not directly caused by criminals yet you’ll object if I say that if police were more careful drivers they could reduce death rates. Police spent their whole career complaining about people misbehaving and using the courts to punish them and you think they don’t have thick enough skin to accept a little criticism in return without threatening to quit because their feeling are hurt? If that’s the case we have the wrong temperament people in that job. Good riddance.

    There will always be people who want to be a police officer because of the power.

    Where’s the sympathy for taxicab drivers? They dropped lower on the list once they stopped carrying so much cash because they started to take credit cards. A decade ago I think they had higher death rates than miners (and many times that of police officers) , mostly from robberies and car accidents. They too were targets because of their job. The law required them to provide service to shady people wanting to go to dangerous parts of town.

    1. I certainly have gone on rants here about bad cops. Buck Carter pops into my mind. Now there was a real POS for you.

      He didn’t shoot any black folks, to my knowledge but he sure did blackmail young women for sex.

  14. Wolve

    Many of those police officers who lose their lives in accidents are conducting business along a highway and get hit by a careless or impaired driver who ignores the rules about slowing down and moving over a lane. I believe that just happened in our area. Others have unfortunate accidents because of the high speeds trying to get to emergency calls in order to make a difference for those who need help. Or they have to go out on the roads in bad weather when the rest of us are advised to stay home for our own safety.

    Criticism of a specific police action is one thing, Blanket condemnation seemingly at every opportunity is quite another. Next thing we know, someone will call for the disarming of the police.

    1. It’s simply not a safe job. In fact, its dangerous.

  15. Ed Myers

    Policing is a pretty safe job that could be even safer if they changed policies and procedures.

  16. Wolve

    It would be a waste of time to even try to respond to that last one. Roll of the eyes.

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