San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘WHAT HAPPENED TO DAD?’
LINDA M. WILSON: San Diegan recalls the day her father, a police officer, was shot in 1970
On Sept. 21, San Diego resident Linda M. Wilson wrote a Facebook post that recalled a shooting that occurred 50 years ago in Linda Vista. On Sept. 21, 1970, the Evening Tribune wrote about the shooting in the afternoon edition. The next day, the morning paper, the Union, covered it as well. Here, in a slightly edited version of her Facebook post, she recounts that fateful day.
Some things from my childhood stand out in memory more so than others. For me, one of those happened 50 years ago.
Monday, September 21, 1970. It was a bright, warm September morning as summer was fading away. I had just started fifth grade at Ross Elementary School. My sisters were in first and third grade. My dad was working, a 13-year veteran of San Diego Police Department, finishing up the graveyard shift, so he would be off work soon. We were all getting ready for school. I was supposed to bring a news article to share with the class that day, so I was skimming through the local rag trying to find something of importance about something happening in our world. When there was nothing of note happening locally, it always ended up being something about the Vietnam War, so I cut out the article. I didn't imagine that by the end of the day, my family would become involved in a news article ourselves.
I was closest to the front door when the doorbell rang. I opened the door and saw a police officer standing at the bottom of our steps, looking very grim. He asked me to get my mom. Of course, I was curious to know what this was all about, so I lingered near the door. The officer asked Mom to step outside for a minute. All I could hear him say was “Frank has been hurt.” Their voices lowered. She came back inside, and was so calm that I could only imagine it wasn't anything too serious. “What's the matter?” I asked. “What happened to Dad?” She answered that he was going to the hospital, but he was going to be okay. Never did I consider it could be a shooting; I just assumed he had been in a car accident. She wanted us to go to school and said she'd get us out of our classes when more was known. How she stayed so composed, I wasn't sure. What I didn't know at the time was that Dad's name had already been mentioned in a radio news report, and our minister from church had already contacted her with the news, having heard it himself. But Mom said she just wanted to be strong for us until there was more information.
Sometime later in the morning, my sisters and I were retrieved from our classes by other police officers and were sent home. We were told that our dad had been shot, but that he was in the hospital and was going to be okay. We were scared at first, then shocked at the news, but relieved. He was going to recover. He had been patrolling, alone, in Linda Vista when he encountered two men stripping a stolen motorcycle. The location of the shooting was at the foot of Wheatstone Street on the rim of Tecolote Canyon in Linda Vista.
We kids didn't get to see Dad for over a week, because Sharp Memorial didn't allow visitors under 12 years old at that time. At one point several days later, he was wheeled down to the lobby so we could visit him.
One thing I will remember with deep gratitude, as I'm sure the rest of my family will, is how our dear friends, neighbors, the community, and our church family responded. Mom had church members visit and sit with her while she was in the hospital waiting room during the surgery. We were all showered with love and care, had meals brought to us, and had invitations to join other families for dinner every night both during his hospitalization and for a while afterward. We felt so supported to experience the best of humanity. My sister Kerry remembers her third grade class sending cards to Dad, and local TV personality Bob Dale read some of them on the air.
I don't know how much time the shooter, John Hawthorne, served. He was 19 at the time of the shooting. Dad knew him already; he had arrested him before and he was usually compliant. This time was different. We do remember that Hawthorne had another brother who had been jailed for another offense, who committed suicide behind bars, and their mother said she thought the family lived under a curse since they were descendants of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
This story could have had a much different ending, but thankfully it didn't, and Dad lived for another 33 years until his death in 2003.
Wilson is a lifelong San Diegan and a local freelance writer. She is a retired city of San Diego employee.