Texas Suffers 13th Fallen Officer This Year

At approximately 1:00 am MDT yesterday morning, two El Paso patrolmen were dispatched to a non-emergency call. As they drove through an intersection on the way to the location their patrol car was struck so violently by a drunk driver that it was pushed into a nearby utility pole.

Patrolman
Karl McDonough

The crash left the driver of the patrol car with very serious injuries. The passenger, Patrolman Karl McDonough, became the 13th law enforcement officer this year to be killed in the line of duty in Texas.

Even though California is the state with the country's largest population (by 1/3 more than Texas), since 2007 Texas has led the nation in the number of law enforcement deaths annually. In 2007 alone, 24 local, state, and federal LEOs have lost their lives there.

In addition to the "common" dangers of drunk drivers, our brothers and sisters in Texas also face increasing dangers posed by the illegal narcotics and human smuggling operations and the violent subculture that controls it. With the additional resources being thrown at the border by the Department of Homeland Security, it is inevitable that cartels will push back, leading to increased assaults on our officers, both on the border and in Texas' interior counties and cities.

We urge officers everywhere to always work with a heightened sense of awareness, but can't stress this point enough to our warriors in Texas and the other border states. We do this in the memory of those Texas lawmen who we have lost this year and in years prior:

Police Officer Craig Story	Arlington Police Department, TX	2010-01-13
Officer Timothy Joseph Zurovetz	Forest Hill Police Department, TX	2010-03-24
Constable John W. Brown	Calhoun County Constable's Office - Precinct 5, TX	2010-04-10
Deputy Sheriff Jacob Rene Rayos	Reeves County Sheriff's Department, TX	2010-04-11
Officer Rodney Holder	Abilene Police Department, TX	2010-04-29
Police Officer Eydelmen Mani	Houston Police Department, TX	2010-05-19
Border Patrol Agent Mark Van Doren	United States Department of Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection - Border Patrol, US	2010-05-24
Deputy Sheriff Eddie Wotipka	Harris County Sheriff's Department, TX	2010-06-10
Police Officer Craig Shaw	Lancaster Police Department, TX	2010-06-20
Police Officer Leonard Reed	Cedar Park Police Department, TX	2010-08-18
Corrections Officer Kellie Pena	Texas Department of Criminal Justice, TX	2010-09-03
Corporal David Ralph Slaton	Texas Department of Public Safety - Texas Highway Patrol, TX	2010-09-20
Patrolman Karl R. McDonough	El Paso Police Department, TX	2010-10-13