Dear Governor Deal,
As a citizen, mayor and a former public safety officer, I am extremely disappointed to learn that Detective Shane Wilson's name is being left off the Georgia Public Safety Memorial. As you are well aware, Detective Shane Wilson was tragically killed in November 2011 while en route to a home invasion call.
While Detective Wilson was killed "on duty," he did not meet the Memorial committee's criteria of being killed "in the line of duty," according to Mr. Tim Bearden. To say Detective Wilson was killed "on duty" but not "in the line of duty," is offensive and arbitrary. For the family of Detective Wilson, our police department and the entire City of Doraville, it is completely unacceptable to leave this young man's name off of a slain officer's memorial because of a preposition.
On behalf of the City, I would like to take this opportunity to strongly urge you and the Georgia Public Safety Training Center to add Detective Wilson's name as soon as possible. I trust you will share this letter with the governing body of that fine institution. This mistake, notwithstanding, I do applaud your many efforts to honor our State's brave men and women in blue, and I have the utmost confidence in your ability to rectify this situation. In doing so, you will be bringing much needed solace and a sense of closure to the family of Detective Shane Wilson.
Sincerely,
Mayor Donna Pittman
Good news - Channel 2 reported at noon today that the honor requirements are getting a rewrite and this officer *will* be included.
ReplyDeletePost from Shane's beautiful mother Gayle Williams Hanson
ReplyDeleteJim went down to Forsyth yesterday and met with the director of GPSTC and all went pretty good. It turns out all the appropriate documents were submitted by Doraville Police Dept. well before the committee meeting in February, as requested and no other documents were ever requested. It also seems the consensus among those he spoke with feel an error was made. He was told they have never had anything blow up on them like this situation has. They are calling a special meeting in June (hopefully) to reconsider the tragic accident that took Shane's life, along with 6 other officers not included in this years memorial. Apparently all the calls, emails, letter writing, etc, all of our friends, family and concerned caring people out there, civilian as well as law enforcement, got their attention. I cannot thank you all enough. Love you all for whatever part you played in helping our family honor our son, Robert Shane Wilson. Keep it up. It's not over yet but a pretty good start!
Found on the petition update section of the website below.
http://www.change.org/petitions/georgia-public-safety-training-center-director-honor-this-fallen-officer-on-the-gpstc-memorial-wall-this-year