I don't know if any of you saw this national news article or not. It wasn't national news until around the 21st of Jan. but could be found on major stations such as Fox News, Yahoo News, CNN, etc...
Basically, the situation is this: In a small central Georgia community, two officers used an unmarked vehicle in order to serve warrants to some of the citizens in town. One such citizen had been avoiding police for several months and was taken into custody that night. While in police custody, he began having trouble breathing. The officers placed the man in the patrol vehicle parked nearby and went to the police department. While enroute, they notified EMS to have an ambulance on the way and called the Police Chief at home and asked him to meet them at the police department.
When the Police Chief arrived, he attempted CPR and then drove the ambulance to a nearby hospital to allow the two EMS workers to concentrate on the ill man. The GBI, GA State Patrol, and several other surrounding agencies were called and dispatched to the city when a group of around 100 citizens began throwing rocks at the police department and personal vehicles of the two officers involved.
The Police Chief requested that the neighboring SWAT vehicle go to his home, which was less than two blocks from the police station, in order to evacuate his pregnant wife and two small children. Roughly an hour later, the crowd in town was disbanded and the Chief's house was reported to be fully engulfed in flames. It was later determined that the house was burglarized first.
The town has been in turmoil ever since. There have been rumors flying that the Chief, himself, stood on the neck of the deceased man and that he burned his own house down to cause chaos. It has been three months since this incident and, while the DA does have the full report from the GBI, that office has not released any information to the public. John Oxendine, the Insurance Commissioner for GA, has offered a $10,000 reward to anyone offering information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) involved in the arson/burglary and would like to see the prosecution of such individuals be deemed "domestic terrorism". However, the "good people" in town are very scared that if they speak up, they will be retaliated against as well.
There have been no calls to the arson hotline with any information. Meanwhile, this family is separated with the wife and children living in Metro Atlanta with family and the Chief staying with friends in the area so that he can continue to do his job. The Chief had just returned from a ten month tour of duty in Iraq and the family had only been under the same roof living as a family for one month. The due date for their unborn child is quickly approaching and there is rumor that the military might send him back overseas in Sept.
Does anyone have any advice for this family as far as how to handle this crisis emotionally? We would greatly appreciate it.
