BGPD, family and friends remember slain Officer David Whitson
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 1, 2011
- Joe Imel/Daily NewsBowling Green Police Department Capt. Terrill Sharber (left) and Capt. Penny Bowles salute Monday during a wreath-laying ceremony at the grave of fallen Officer David Whitson at Crestview Cemetery in Gallatin, Tenn. Whitson was killed Oct. 31, 2006, as he and two other BGPD officers responded to a call about a knife-wielding man at a house on Vine Street. The man attacked Whitson with two knives, leading to a struggle. Both Whitson and the attacker were killed by gunshots fired by officers who were trying to defend Whitson during the altercation. — Click here for more photos from the ceremony.
On the fifth anniversary of Bowling Green Police Department Officer David Whitson’s death, his family and friends gathered at his Gallatin, Tenn., gravesite Monday as the BGPD honor guard placed a wreath on Whitson’s grave.
“It was a nice ceremony,” said Whitson’s niece, Krista Scruggs of Westmoreland, Tenn. “I like that it’s a little more formal now.”
Every year on the anniversary of Whitson’s death, BGPD members have traveled to the gravesite to lay a wreath. This year, the department began a new, more formal honor guard ceremony memorializing the time, 10:40 a.m., as well as the day that Whitson gave his life.
“It’s definitely deserving of the formality, I believe,” Scruggs said.
Bowling Green police officers saluted while taps played in the background and honor guard members presented the colors.
Captains Penny Bowles and Terrill Sharber placed a blue-and-white wreath on Whitson’s grave.
“We thank you for David Whitson,” police chaplain Joe Causey said during the prayer after the wreath placement. “We are grateful for his life.”
Causey asked God that all in attendance would walk away from the ceremony with “precious memories” of Whitson.
The idea behind formalizing the annual memorial is to create an event that will take place long after people who worked with Whitson have left the department.
“I do like that,” Scruggs said. “That way he will never be forgotten.”
At 10:40 a.m. on Oct. 31, 2006, police dispatchers received the call about shots being fired on Vine Street the day that Whitson, known as “Slim” to his friends, was shot and killed in the line of duty. Whitson died from a single gunshot wound to the torso after being attacked by Rojelio Gonzalez-Pacheco, who came at Whitson with two knives. Two other officers fired their weapons in an attempt to protect Whitson, and one of the shots struck and killed him. Police also shot and killed Gonzalez-Pacheco.
Whitson is the only police officer in the department’s 100-plus year history to lose his life in the line of duty.
Whitson’s older sister, Teresa Forbis of Portland, Tenn., was touched by the people who traveled to Tennessee for the ceremony.
“I think it’s very nice, very special for so many people to remember my brother, not just family but friends and co-workers,” she said.
