One Child Inspires

Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 3:09 PM


The News Tribune / Tacoma, WA
Word on the Street
December 16, 2009 - Tacoma, WA

Lakewood police officer pens Christmas story
Posted By Mike Archbold on December 16, 2009 at 9:50 am

A little boy and his toy dinosaur who came by the Lakewood Office Department
station last Sunday to honor the four slain police officers touched an
officer enough that the officer wanted to share the story in a Christmas
letter to friends.

One of the friends who received the letter, Tukwila police officer Mike
Murphy, said he and his fellow officers were so touched by the story that
they thought it should be shared with the community.

Murphy said the officer who wrote it agreed but wanted to remain anonymous.

"It is just a story of one child reaching out and helping heal the pain we
have all suffered," Murphy said in his e-mail. "Our only goal in sending it
is to reach out to our community and thank them for this and all the other
love and support they have sent us through this very difficult time."

The Christmas story is reprinted below:

December 13, 2009

I'm not much for writing Christmas letters, and in fact this year, I didn't
even feel like making the effort of buying and addressing Christmas cards at
all. I'm sure you all have heard of the terrible tragedy that occurred here
in Lakewood two weeks ago today - four of our officers, four people that
have become my friends over the past 5 years as we all worked here together,
were gunned down as they sat in a coffee shop. Three fathers and a mother -
all of whom were dedicated to their jobs and their families - now dead. The
grief at our station and in our community has been overwhelming and we have
all now just barely begun to process what this means for our department and
for police departments all across our state and nation. Several times since
this event happened, police agencies have responded to reports of
individuals across King and Pierce Counties causing commotions and claiming
to be planning to kill more officers. We do our best to maintain our
composure and continue to do our jobs the best that we can.

It is hard not to remain bleak and jaded with these events so fresh in our
minds. But something happened today, just 20 minutes ago, which made me want
to send out a Christmas letter. I'm here at work and was just out in our
secure parking lot helping another officer load collection bins into his car
to take to a local Lakewood Police Independent Guild fundraiser event. I
heard a woman, standing with a boy who couldn't have been more than 3 or 4
years old, calling, "Excuse me...." through our locked gate. She had
apparently been trying to get to our front counter but found no one there,
it being Sunday, and had just happened to see us in the parking lot. I
walked over to her and saw that the little boy was holding a plastic baggy
containing a dollar and some change, and was clutching a well-worn stuffed
dinosaur.

The woman told me that her son, AJ, had seen the stories on tv about our 4
slain officers. She said that they had driven to our station all the way
from Kingston because her son was so intent on helping the children of these
officers. I opened the gate and the boy handed me the plastic baggy
containing all the money from his piggybank and a note on which he had
written "AJ....From me to Pleec. I Love You." And then, with tears in his
eyes, he handed me his stuffed dinosaur. AJ's mom explained that he wanted
to give the children of the slain officers the most precious thing that he
owned, and that was his dinosaur, Bruno.

I told AJ that I would take the money that he wanted to donate, but that I
thought the best thing he could do for the children of our 4 officers was to
keep Bruno safe with him but to keep those kids in his heart when he hugged
his dinosaur. He agreed and gratefully took Bruno back from me and held him
tightly as if he never wanted to let him go again.

We have seen many, many acts of generosity and kindness over the past 2
weeks. We have hugged more friends and strangers than we could have ever
imagined and have mended broken ties with people we haven't talked to for
years. Yet nothing has touched me deeper, or given me more hope for the
future, than AJ and his stuffed dinosaur. I gave AJ one of our department
challenge coins, explaining to him that we only gave them out to the bravest
and most deserving people we came across. I hope he will realize someday how
much more than a dollar and some change he gave to me and to the Lakewood
Police Department today.

So anyway, none of that is about Christmas, but it is about hope and love
and I thought it was appropriate to share this holiday season.

I hope this letter finds all of you well and eager to spend the holidays
with those you love. Squeeze everyone a little tighter and hug them a little
longer today because life really is precious. Merry Christmas!