Posted on 04/23/2011 3:22:10 AM PDT by UncleHambone
SPRINGFIELD — Eugene police officer Chris Kilcullen — a 12-year veteran of the city police force and a father of two — was fatally shot Friday afternoon while pursuing a car that had sped away from his motorcycle during an attempted traffic stop on Interstate 105, police said.
Authorities arrested the woman who allegedly killed Kilcullen following a standoff with a police SWAT team that cornered her east of Lowell. That was after she allegedly led officers on a 20-mile chase to the rural area after fleeing the scene of the shooting, which occurred about 4:30 p.m. along the Highway 126 Expressway in Springfield’s Thurston area.
The suspected shooter is identified as Cheryl D. Kidd, 56, of Springfield. Kidd was being interviewed late Friday night by detectives and will be lodged in the Lane County Jail on a murder charge, Springfield Police Chief Jerry Smith said.
It remains unclear what led Kidd to allegedly pull out a handgun and shoot the officer.
“We still have to see what’s going on with her,” Smith said, adding that investigators will speak with the woman’s friends and family.
Kilcullen, 43, is the first Eugene police officer to die in the line of duty since 1934.
During a brief but somber news conference held less than six hours after the shooting, Eugene Police Chief Pete Kerns spoke of Kilcullen’s “honorable career” with the department and recalled the officer as a “very popular guy” who was “relentlessly positive and upbeat.”
Flanked by a group of police supervisors — three of whom had affixed black bands to their badges in a display of mourning — Kerns said he was pleased to hear that Kilcullen’s alleged killer had been taken into custody uninjured, although he expressed bitterness about the incident.
“I am personally angered by this — that someone would kill one of our officers,” Kerns said.
The incident that ultimately led to Kilcullen’s death and Kidd’s arrest began when the officer — working on his motorcycle as a member of the police department’s traffic enforcement team — tried to stop an eastbound 1998 Buick Skylark on Interstate 105, police said.
Instead of pulling over for Kilcullen, the Buick’s driver sped into Springfield on the interstate, which becomes the Highway 126 Expressway east of Interstate 5. Police radio traffic indicated that the driver reached 80 mph during the pursuit, before approaching the highway’s intersection with 52nd Street in Springfield’s Thurston area.
A number of vehicles were stopped at a red light at the intersection. Smith said the Buick slowed and swerved around to the right of those vehicles, while Kilcullen pulled up beside the car and lowered his motorcycle’s kickstand.
“We have some indications that he was trying to point for (Kidd) to pull over, and she fired at least one round from a handgun” striking Kilcullen, Smith said.
Kilcullen fell against the rear tire of a tractor-trailer rig that had stopped at the intersection, Smith said.
Kilcullen did not return fire, Eugene police Sgt. Sam Kamkar said.
Kilcullen was taken by ambulance to Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
While police and medics raced to the scene of the shooting, the Buick continued along the highway, with Springfield police giving chase. Kidd allegedly disregarded officers and drove south to Jasper-Lowell Road before heading east toward Lowell. She continued on North Shore Drive, then turned onto a U.S. Forest Service road where she reached a dead end, police said.
At least one officer immediately began negotiating with Kidd, while others set up a perimeter around the Buick, Smith said.
Police were able to talk the woman out of the car and take her into custody about 7:30 p.m., Smith said.
By that time, many of the investigators who responded to the shooting scene had left. The highway’s eastbound lanes, which had been closed since shortly after Kilcullen was shot, was reopened by 8:30 p.m. During the closure, state highway workers diverted eastbound traffic onto 42nd Street, causing a 2-mile-long traffic jam there.
Police also closed through traffic on 52nd Street near the scene for more than three hours following the shooting.
While Springfield police handle the shooting investigation, Kerns and his officers are mourning Kilcullen’s death.
“Our department is grieving, along with his family,” said Kerns of Kilcullen, who is survived by his wife and two children.
“This is a moment of pure sorrow,” Eugene Police Employees’ Association President Erik Humphrey said in a statement.
“Today, we lost a brother officer, killed in the line of duty. There is no greater sacrifice,” Humphrey said. “Our devoted prayers are with this fine officer’s family. This void in law enforcement will remain forever. We now have a guardian angel walking the beat. God speed, our beloved friend.”
According to The Register-Guard’s archives and the website www.odmp.com, two Eugene police officers prior to Kilcullen had died in the line of duty.
In 1930, officer Oscar Lee Duley was shot and killed near Marcola by moonshiner Ray Sutherland. Just four years later, in 1934, officer Jesse Jennings Jackson died in a motorcycle crash.
Kilcullen is the second Eugene officer to die this year. In February, Sgt. Jerry Webber was killed in an off-duty, accidental shooting at a firing range southeast of Eugene. Webber, 44, had been with the police department since 1994.
RIP.
These days, when a person can be almost beat to death in a McDonalds, what is to make anyone think that it’s safe if you see flashing lights to just pull over and wimp out?
Seriously?
What?
If I were to be pulled over in a public space with many witnesses by a uniformed officer in a marked police vehicle, I will not come out shooting.
Are you suggesting that if you see flashing lights you are going to guns?
Prayers for the Officers family and co-workers
I believe he means that today’s thugs are completely brazen and don’t care if their crime is committed on film.
Rip.
Please tell me you don’t mean what you said.
I long for the good old days when you shot a cop you automatically died resisting arrest.
They should have on the spot made a collander out of her.
Dear God, thank you for accepting officer Chris Kilcullen into thy kingdom. Please God, comfort his family and fellow officers. God please deliver our society away from the evil which surrounds each of us, and grant us peace. In Jesus name ... Amen.
Where is this? (Almost half the states in the Union have a Springfield.)
Oregon.
I like the police chief in Florida who was asked why his officers shot something like 300 rounds into a police killer and he responded with something like “because we didn’t have 400 rounds”.
I like the police chief in Florida who was asked why his officers shot something like 300 rounds into a police killer and he responded with something like “because we didn’t have 400 rounds”.
OK, so I guess I have to explain myself.
First, I am NOT blaming the cops.
Second, I am IN NO WAY saying that cops should be shot.
With that in mind, think about it.
It’s the middle of the night. You are driving near Mt. Bigrocks in your nice, shiny 2009 Camry. A car has been following you for a mile and a half.
The lights go on.
Now you have basically zero options. You CAN’T try to drive to some public place, they’ll chase you down or put spikes in the road, whatever. (And remember, all this even if you didn’t do anything. You might simply have a burned out taillight)
Or you can pull over and assume a totally docile, non-defensive stance, and wait.
There’s a chance you may end up beaten and bloodied or even dead by the side of the road while your car gets driven to a chop shop.
And as things get worse, that chance will keep going up.
A guy here in Washington was sentenced to a year in jail the other day. What did he do? He sent life threatening letters to Gregoire. Why did he do it? Because they were GOING TO CUT HIS WELFARE BENEFITS!!
It’s a very well known fact that perps in Florida often target people in rental cars because those people are most likely tourists and are the LEAST likely people to be bearing arms.
But what good is having a gun if some yayhoo can buy or fabricate a set of lights and take you to the cleaners or worse as soon as the sun goes down?
I’m getting more and more of the opinion that cops should not be allowed to stop anyone unless there is an immediate threat of bodily harm or some kind of equipment problem, and not just a busted taillight.
And the last time I got pulled over at night was on a crowded freeway, I was behind a semi, the cop gave me a warning and said I was following too close, but the cop was closer to me than I was to the truck!
People are getting more and more trigger happy, and that’s not good. But that INCLUDES the cops also!
Thanks. That post certainly explains your first post. Now that I understand, I’ll just back quietly out the door, okay? No shooting, okay?
"Now you have basically zero options. You CAN’T try to drive to some public place, they’ll chase you down or put spikes in the road, whatever. (And remember, all this even if you didn’t do anything. You might simply have a burned out taillight) Or you can pull over and assume a totally docile, non-defensive stance, and wait."
Yes, you CAN drive to a public place. They won't need to chase you down because you aren't trying to evade them. And if it gets to the point where there are stop-sticks or road blocks, you can probably rest assured that the cops are legit.
The events described in the above article have little in common with your scenario, also. The shooting took place at an intersection full of cars. Those cars were full of people who would be able to describe the fake cop if that was what he was.
“There’s a chance you may end up beaten and bloodied or even dead by the side of the road while your car gets driven to a chop shop.”
This happen a lot in your neck of the woods?
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