Thread: Police officer is shot, killed on Jordan Lane - by illegal

First slain in line of duty since 1968; no arrests made
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
By STEVE DOYLE
Times Staff Writer steved@htimes.com

Huntsville police are mourning the death of a popular west precinct patrolman who was fatally shot in the head Monday while answering a domestic disturbance call.

Daniel Golden, 27, a second shift officer who joined the police force in July 2002, was shot about 3:30 p.m. in the parking lot of Jalisco, a Mexican grocery/restaurant on Jordan Lane. Authorities said he died about two hours later at Huntsville Hospital - the first city cop killed in the line of duty in almost 40 years.

The Meridianville resident leaves behind a new wife, HEMSI paramedic Donessa Golden, and two stepchildren.

"We've lost one from the brotherhood in blue," said shaken Police Chief Rex Reynolds. "It's traumatic, tough, emotional. We can only hold his family now and try to help them through the healing process."

No one had been charged in Golden's death by press time, but Reynolds said investigators were focusing on a man detained at the scene. The chief said he thinks police rounded up everyone who may have seen or been involved in the incident.

He was hopeful an arrest would be made soon.

"This community needs it. The police department needs it. His family needs it," Reynolds said.

According to police sources who asked not to be identified, Golden was responding to a call about a Hispanic man beating his wife with a gun. The man shot Golden in the head as soon as the officer stepped out of his cruiser, the sources said, and then shot him again.

Word that an officer was down sent police from across the city racing toward Jordan Lane and Grizzard Road. They arrived to a grisly scene: blood in the restaurant's parking lot. The lights on Golden's police cruiser were still on.

Everywhere, glum-looking police, sheriff's deputies and highway patrolmen milled about. Cops carrying shotguns hustled into a field behind the restaurant; so did a police German shepherd and its handler.

The sea of blue lights slowed rush-hour traffic to a crawl on Jordan Lane. Several curious drivers pulled over to try to find out what was going on. Police kept everyone back about 100 yards, but one man managed to get an up-close look at the crime scene: He had binoculars.

The ominous weather was a far bigger concern to detectives than the gawkers. Sgt. Ed Cain of the police department's Major Crimes Unit said rain could wash away any DNA evidence in the parking lot.

"We're going to have to cover the scene to preserve it," Cain said.

Seven young children on a Huntsville City Schools bus saw the aftermath of the shooting. The driver, who identified herself only as Redd, said she slowed to about 5 mph and could tell Golden was badly hurt.

Several men got out of a car to try to help the officer before paramedics arrived, she said.

"The kids said they'd never seen anything like that," Redd said. "He was just laying there not moving."

While emergency room doctors worked to save Golden, many of his police pals stood vigil outside the hospital. Reynolds said grief counselors and chaplains will be available to any officer who needs them.

Golden, who grew up on a tobacco farm in Kelso, Tenn., is just the eighth Huntsville police officer killed in the line of duty and the first since William T. Gaskin in 1968. Gaskin was shot to death while trying to make an arrest.

Don Webster, director of the HEMSI ambulance service, was good friends with Golden and his wife.

"He was a very happy guy, always smiling," Webster said. "He was one of those glass-half-full people."

When he wasn't on patrol, Golden could usually be found hunting, fishing, riding four-wheelers with his wife or tending the tobacco crop at his parents' farm in Tennessee.

"He loved farming," Webster said, "but he loved being a police officer more than farming."

"It's a tragedy in any city when you have something of this magnitude happen," Mayor Loretta Spencer said. "It's a terrible loss."

This story doesn't mention it, but yes, the suspect is one of GWB's favorite people, i.e. an illegal alien.

He is the 96th officer killed in the line of duty this year to date.

what state is this article from?

COI: You mean 96th officer in the nation killed so far this year?

W

Alabama.
yes 96th's nation wide.

The Officer Down Memorial Page
http://www.odmp.org/

Here's the URL:

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletim...080.xml&coll=1

The illegal status of the perp was reported by someone who called up several news sources for a followup.

The suspect is 41 year old Benito Albarran.

I think it would be a great idea if Bush would meet with every family of US citizens murdered by illegal immigrants to explain to them face to face why the federal government did nothing to protect their loved one.

You said it had enuf