5 months ago
GEORGETOWN, Del. (DELMARVANOW.com) -- Georgetown, Del. officer Chad Spicer was killed and another officer wounded Tuesday evening when they were shot as they chased three men wanted in a shooting near the McDonald's restaurant on U.S. 113.
The officers followed a car suspected in the restaurant shooting to a spot near Kimmey Street and Rosa Street in the Kimmeytown neighborhood on the town's northeastern side.
Three men bolted out of the car and started to run and the officers gave chase. Shots were fired and both officers were hit, according to Cpl. Bruce Harris, a spokesman for Delaware State Police.
Spicer, 29, was killed, and Cpl. Shawn Brittingham was struck by a bullet fragment, according to Police Chief William Topping. Both were taken to Beebe Medical Center in Lewes. Brittingham remains in good condition.
Police arrested two of the suspects quickly after the shooting, then sealed off a four-block-by-four-block area north of East Market Street and started searching the area near the Perdue plant for a man wanted for questioning.
Harris wouldn't release information Tuesday night about the two men in custody, but identified the man wanted for questioning as Christopher Reeves, who lives in Lincoln.
Harris said shortly after 10 p.m. that he did not know when police would lift the cordon from around the Kimmeytown area.
"We're going to be beating the bushes," he said.
Topping said the two officers did not return fire. He also said that all Georgetown police officers have been ordered to "stand down," with neighboring communities asked to supply officers to take over town policing until the Georgetown force can adjust to the shock.
"We need to focus on Officer Spicer's family and keep them in our prayers and give them everything they need," Topping said. "This is another demonstration that life is valuable and fragile and what we do is a dangerous job."
Topping said Spicer has been with the Georgetown Police Department for about a year, and before that was an officer in Bridgeville. He declined to provide information about Spicer's family.
Chief Allen Parsons of Bridgeville Police Department said he talked to Spicer a few days ago and that he was a bit of a mentor for him. He said Spicer worked as an officer for him for about three and a half years.
"He was a good officer, that much I can tell you," Parsons said.
Brittingham has been with the Georgetown Police Department since February 2003 and has been the department's K-9 officer since July of 2005. A shift supervisor, he is a member of the department's Emergency Response Team, according to information on the department's Web site.
As darkness fell Tuesday, the small town in central Sussex County was bathed in flashing red and blue lights.
Several small groups of citizens gathered near the roadblocks on side streets. Others waited to be allowed back into the neighborhood that was blocked off. Police did not evacuate people from homes and businesses within the search area.
"Nobody can go in or out," said Angela Chaparro as she waited with friends.
Sussex County Deputy Director Robert Stuart said paramedics took the two officers to Beebe Medical Center after the shooting. One officer was hit in the face and the other in the neck, he said.
"We went though this last year when we lost Stephanie Callaway," Stuart said. Callaway, a 31-year-old paramedic and mother of two, was killed when the ambulance she was traveling in swerved to dodge a deer and crashed into a tree. "We are shocked that it happened and we feel for the Georgetown Police Department."
According to the Web site Officer Down Memorial Page, Delaware has lost 35 law enforcement officers in the line of duty over the years. Before Tuesday's shooting, 11 officers were killed by gunfire. Delaware State Police had the most, with 18 fallen officers, followed by Wilmington with nine.
The Georgetown shooting is the first involving a police officer in Delaware in recent memory, however.
In the past 30 years, seven Wilmington officers have been shot in the line of duty. The last officer to be killed was Thomas J. Conaty Jr., who died Dec. 26, 1946, after being shot while questioning youths about a burglary.
The only New Castle County officer killed in the line of duty was Paul J. Sweeney, who died Oct. 20, 1972, after he was rear-ended by a 16-year-old driver on Concord Pike near Independence Mall. His squad car burst into flames; and he died 42 days later from his injuries.
Christopher Shea was the last Delaware state trooper to lose his life on duty. On July 18, 2004, the corporal was killed by a drunken driver who had just been involved in a hit-and-run accident to which Shea was responding.
The crash happened along Del. 1 in Sussex County when Shea's cruiser and the car collided head-on, killing the driver of the car instantly. Shea later died at Milford Memorial Hospital.
Wilmington Police Chief Michael Szczerba knows what it's like to be shot in the line of duty. In November 1980, Szczerba, then 25, was shot in the chest by a murder suspect in northeast Wilmington.
He was walking in the 2100 block of Pine Street 30 minutes after a fatal shooting when a .22-caliber bullet cut him down, lodging between his shoulder blades.
"It will be a lifetime memory for me, but I was very fortunate," Szczerba said. "From my experience I know that it's going to be tough for the Georgetown Police Department and the entire law enforcement family in Delaware. This is a tragic incident."
Szczerba said that the Wilmington Police crisis management team will be on call for anything that the Georgetown Police Department might need.
Comments 
