KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jeremy Walker was very close to the Wyandotte County deputies who died in the line of duty July 15, 2018. He was their supervisor but was also their friend.
He said the last 10 days have been difficult.
“Professionally, I miss two of my best deputies. Personally, I miss two of the people I like seeing every day when I went to work,” said Walker.
Walker often helped deputy Theresa King, who was a single mom. He spent time with King's seven-year-old daughter, Lexi, because she didn’t have a male role model in her life. At her mom’s funeral, it was clear Lexi leaned on Walker; she held his hand walking in, sat with him during the funeral, and walked out with him, too.
Walker explained both deputies had young kids who are doing as well as can be expected.
Walker said court transfers are typically one of the safest jobs in the department. He said that’s one of the things which drew King to the job. However, something like this makes everyone question the work.
“I think everybody involved is at least questioning it. I think every time one of these things happens, everybody in the department steps back and questions if we can keep going forward. I think it'd be weird if we didn’t,” he said.
As the vice president of the local fraternal order of police – F.O.P. #40 in Wyandotte County - Walker is heading up fundraising for the families.
They’re selling custom hats to raise money. The WC may be obvious - Wyandotte County. The S and O stand for sheriff's office. But the numbers on the hat are personal.
“Once you're sworn in, you get a commission number. It's our badge numbers,” said Walker.
King was 1689. Rohrer was 1903.
Walker said the numbers will never be re-issued.
“There is nothing we could do to ever make up for the loss of what those families have given us. The least we can do is make sure those children have a college fund,” said Walker.
The fraternal order is now managing fundraising for the family after they say they saw some questionable efforts.
“There have been a few we thought were shady so all of it will go through FOPs Facebook page and it’s vetted and it’s going to the families,” said Walker.
You can find the link to that page here.
He said he wants everyone to remember his colleagues and their families for a long time.
“This wasn't Deputy King and Deputy Rohrer. This was Theresa King and Patrick Rohrer. At the end of the day they went home to families,” said Walker.
