Latest shooting ‘just beyond comprehension’
Retired railroad worker Jerry Farrell woke up at 5:30 a.m. yesterday, made some coffee and turned on the TV news, where another nightmare involving the tragic deaths of two Iowa police officers was unfolding.
This time, two cops — one in Des Moines, the other in nearby Urbandale — had been ambushed in their cruisers, shot to death by a gunman who was still on the loose. His thoughts instantly turned to his son, Jesse Farrell, a police officer in the Des Moines suburb of Pleasant Hill who was working the overnight shift.
“With one of ours being out there working too, you always kind of sit here and bite your nails until you hear,” Farrell told me. “Of course, you think of him first thing.”
For three agonizing hours, Farrell sat on the edge of his chair, glued to the TV in the living room of his Iowa home, waiting for word from his son that he was safe.
Only seven months before, his son’s wife, Des Moines cop Susan Farrell, was killed with officer Carlos Puente-Morales, when their vehicle was struck by a wrong-way driver in March. Susan Farrell was just 30 years old, the mother of a toddler girl.
“I just sat here and said to my myself, ‘‘Here we go again,’ ” said Farrell, 68, who was with his wife. “We just kind of sat here and held our breath waiting to hear. If he (the gunman) would do this, what’s his next move going to be?”
He breathed a big sigh of relief when he got a text from his son at about 8:30 a.m. Jesse Farrell said he was fine and the gunman had been caught.
He worries about his son but says someone has to do the job.
“It’s just too bad that people don’t respect them anymore,” Farrell said of cops. “They deserve all the respect they can get for what they have to do.”
The suspected cop killer, Scott Michael Greene, was nabbed a few hours after the fatal shooting of Des Moines police Sgt. Anthony “Tony” Beminio and Urbandale officer Justin Martin. Farrell said their slayings don’t make any sense.
“Two people sitting there in their car, doing nothing, and somebody just walks up and shoots them,” Farrell said. “That’s just beyond comprehension.”
He cried watching news footage of a woman giving an Iowa cop a case of water and a hug. “Next time you see an officer,” Farrell said, “thank him for what he does. He’s out there protecting you and me.”
Farrell had some comforting words for the families of the two slain cops.
“It’s a tragedy,” he said, “and it will get better over time.”