Scot, we are feeling the same pain in Seattle. Our deputy was shot by a felon on parole.
Our third officer death by a felon this past four months. The other two were auto accidents that each killed an officer with the paroled felons driving the other vehicles. Both ran red lights and crashed into the officers vehicles.
Slain deputy had become White Center's "Superman"
By Nick Perry
Seattle Times staff reporter
Giving up a successful career in law is an unusual route to becoming a beat cop.
But King County Sheriff's Deputy Steve Cox was an unusually idealistic man, say those who knew him. Frustrated with criminals beating the legal system, he left his job as a deputy prosecutor to patrol the streets in White Center, the high-crime neighborhood near where he grew up.
To business owners and residents, he became a "Superman" who was single-handedly making the streets safer and the neighborhood better. He became so deeply involved in community issues that he was elected president of the local council. To his family, he was a man who had found new joy since he and his wife, Maria, adopted a baby, Bronson, who turned 1 in October.
Now the neighborhood is mourning after Cox, 46, was shot and killed early Saturday.
At 1:42 a.m., Cox was called to a White Center house party following reports of gunshots. He was the lone deputy interviewing partygoers one-by-one in a bedroom when a man drew a gun. Cox was shot once in the head. Hearing shots, two other deputies ran toward the room and a firefight ensued. The shooter, identified by law-enforcement sources as Raymond O. Porter, 23, was killed.
Cox later died at Harborview Medical Center.
"He was just a helluva guy ... He was so well respected over there in the White Center community it's just hard to believe," said his father, Ron Cox. "I'm so angry with the guy who killed him. It was so unnecessary."
Tearful friends and colleagues brought bouquets of flowers and notes to a makeshift memorial at the White Center Sheriff & Community Service Center in the hours after his death. King County deputies plan to hold a round-the-clock vigil there until Cox's funeral.
Cox grew up in the Shorewood neighborhood southwest of White Center. His parents were both teachers at nearby schools. Tall and athletic, Cox played basketball at Evergreen High School. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from Central Washington University, then with a law degree from Willamette University in Salem, Ore.
By the mid-1990s, Cox was working as a deputy prosecutor on high-profile murder and gang cases in Pasco. Although always intense and serious, Cox also had a soft side, which came out in the way he cared for the small dogs he raised, said Franklin County Prosecutor Steve Lowe.
Lowe said Cox sat down with him several times to talk about his misgivings about the legal system.
"It's not a perfect system, and sometimes we lose cases because of technicalities. That really, really bothered him," Lowe said. "He made it clear that his goal in life was to go back and be a patrol officer. He was frustrated with what is frankly an imperfect system, and he wanted to always help people and make the community safer. He felt he could do that better back in law enforcement."
After a brief stint working as a prosecutor back in King County, Cox joined the Sheriff's Office nine years ago. Soon after, he married Maria, a bodybuilder, whom he met in a gym. Cox was a fitness buff himself and worked out regularly.
Just over three years ago he was assigned to White Center
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Topic: officer down (Read 2333 times)