Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police

On November 18, Marymount University Forensic Psychology students in Karen Bune's graduate class on Victims of Interpersonal Violence paid tribute to Fairfax County Police Department Chief Colonel David M. Rohrer for his understanding of victim issues and for his effective response to the tragic shooting deaths of Detective Vicky Armel and Officer Mike Garbino on May 8, 2006, at the Sully Police Station in Chantilly, Virginia.

Chief Rohrer was honored for the sensitivity with which he assisted the victims' families and their fellow officers with their shock and grief after a gunman opened fire at the police station. The Chief's empathy was recently demonstrated again with the accidental drowning death on October 21, 2008, of Lieutenant Frank Stecco during a training exercise.

External Link to Article

"I was on midnight shift and the only officer on duty," Lt. Kurt Beach told Newschannel 3. "A call came over the radio that there was an infant that was not breathing...I couldn't get breaths into her, so the only thing I could think to do was to clear the airway," Lt. Kurt Beach of the Smithfield Police said. "So, I did what I thought I needed to do which was suck out the mucus and blood that was clogging her up. There was quite a bit of it."

As Lt. Beach desperately tried to save a baby girls life in February of 1988, the father and husband never once thought that good deed could one day cost him everything; including his life.

Lt. Beach has Hepatitis C, an incurable disease that's slowly destroyed his liver. A disease he contracted on that fateful night.

External Link to Article