Columbus officer, Kirkersville chief earn tributes
two little boys in matching green pants, one clutching his mother’s hand. They were the survivors of the 143 police officers killed in the line of duty in 2016, and they’d come to Washington to see their loved ones’ names added to the National Law Enforcement Memorial. Two-hundred and 51 who had died before last year also were added to the wall this week.
Bus 17 held the family of Officer Steven Michael Smith, a Columbus Division of Police SWAT team officer who died from injuries
sustained in a standoff April 12, 2016: widow Lisa Smith, their daughter, Brittany, and son, Jesse, and his wife, Sydney — who is expecting the couple’s first child in June. Also among the large contingent was Steve Smith’s sister, Michelle Shapiro, who’d traveled from Wasilla, Alaska, to see her brother honored.
They came to remember a man who viewed life as a limitless adventure, who in fact “dove into life,” according to Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs.
Sometimes literally: Smith was studying to be a master diver, according to one colleague. He was, they say, the kind of guy who bought golf clubs as part of his plans to learn to golf, a guy whose hobbies included but were not limited to running triathlons, scuba diving, kickboxing, flying a helicopter, rock climbing, hunting and fishing. Oh, and cooking. “He was always asking, ‘Have you eaten yet? Have you eaten yet?’” said Jesse, who will soon graduate from the Columbus Police Academy and wear his father’s badge number. He remembers meals of pasta and Johnny Marzetti — stick-toyour-ribs fare.
Recent times have been tough for Columbus police and for Ohio law enforcement in general, made even more difficult by the loss last week of Kirkersville Police Chief Steven Eric DiSario, who was shot in the line of duty Friday. Even as officers mourned Smith and four other Ohio officers who died in the line of duty in 2016, President Donald Trump singled out DiSario during his remarks to the group.
“Our hearts break for the chief’s family,” the president said. “We love you.”
Trump vowed that those gathered on the west front of the Mall “will always find an open door to the White House.”
“Whatever you need, we are here for you and we are praying for you,” he said.
Other Ohio officers killed last year included two others from central Ohio. In Danville, Officer Thomas Cottrell Jr., 34, died after being ambushed in the parking lot of the village municipal building. From Hilliard, Sean R. Johnson, 46, died after crashing his motorcycle during a training exercise near Westerville.
And in Cuyahoga County, Trooper Kenneth Velez, 48, died after being struck by a car during a traffic stop. In Chesapeake, Aaron Christian, 24, died after a cruiser accident.
The losses are tough, said Rich Brooks, president of
“Whatever you need, we are here for you and we are praying for you.”
— President Donald Trump
the Columbus Ohio Division of Police Honor Guard. The work, he said, isn’t a “9-to-5 job.” Police officers spend enough time together that “we know each other’s successes and failures — it’s like having a brother or a sister.”
He said many of the 40 Columbus officers who went to Washington to honor Smith paid their own way. When they get back, he said, they would take part in services for DiSario.
“It’s too close to home,” Columbus Cmdr. Gary Cameron said of the police losses. He said officers like DiSario have “truly an incredible sense of fairness. We want to protect society — even the people we don’t know.”
DiSario will be honored on the wall next year.
Cameron knew Smith and said he defied the stereotype of the stoic cop.
“He didn’t take himself seriously,” he said. “He had a magnetic personality where everyone wanted to know him. Everyone wanted to be his friend.”
“I’m very proud to wear this uniform,” Cameron said. “Steve’s uniform.”
For Smith’s family members, the journey was bittersweet. Their loss remains devastating, but they were happy to see him honored. They felt like they had met others who knew what it was like to lose someone in the line of duty. And they were touched, they said, to have so many of Smith’s fellow officers support them.
Like the other families on the Mall, Lisa Smith wore a lanyard identifying her as a survivor. Unlike them, though, hers also contained a picture of her husband, grinning broadly from the seat of a SWAT vehicle.
She loves that picture, she said. It was taken after the first time Smith was shot, back in 2013. He was released from the hospital after 10 days and went straight back to work.
“Don’t tell my wife,” he urged his colleagues, she recalled. When she called him, he shushed them — then sheepishly admitted he was back at work.
“I’m at a barricade,” he told her. “Can I call you back?”
She was not happy. He posed for the picture, she said, to assure her he was just fine.
Sgt. Joe Podolski said that Smith’s enthusiasm — for his work, for his family — was contagious.
“We always had to find him work,” he said, “because otherwise he’d find it on his own.”
“He did not waste a moment of his life,” said Jacobs. “He dove headfirst into everything he did.”