Chief pays tribute to one of department's best

Chief Scott Cunningham of the Winston-Salem Police Department, who takes a hands-on approach to his job, was stuck in an airport hundreds of miles away Oct. 7 when he got word that two of his officers had just been shot.

"It was an absolute sickening situation … You talk about a feeling of helplessness, to be sitting in Atlanta, and knowing that there's absolutely nothing you can do," said Cunningham, who had been headed home from a Denver meeting of international police chiefs. "You want to be there to help."

As soon as his plane landed at Piedmont Triad International Airport, Cunningham hurried to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. One of the officers, Sgt. Mickey Hutchens, had been shot in the head. He died Monday night and was buried Friday. The other officer, Daniel Clark, was shot twice and is recovering. His bullet-proof vest stopped one of those rounds. Monte Denard Evans, who opened fire on the officers after they responded to a domestic disturbance call, was fatally shot.

Cunningham, a former chief of the Cary Police Department and assistant chief in Tampa, had not dealt with a police shooting since taking the reins here in the summer of 2008. His officers are more important than his personal feelings, he said. But any chief is the face of his department, and that's especially true in times of crisis. Departments and the public look to their chiefs for calm and candid leadership.

Cunningham provided that in the aftermath of the shooting.

He arrived here with experience no officer wants.

In Tampa, he dealt with the loss of eight fellow officers, as well as that of a good friend who was a state trooper. One officer was killed when a helicopter he was in that was looking for a lost boater crashed. Another was hit by a drunk driver after he stopped to help a disabled motorist. The trooper was hit by a car at an accident scene. The rest were killed by gunshots.

"They don't get any easier," Cunningham said last week, and multiple deaths of co-workers weigh heavy on many officers. "There's a lot of officers in our department who have, unfortunately, experienced the deaths of four or five officers."

And as chief, he said, "there's a staggering feeling of responsibility, even though the reality is that you can't do anything in many cases. You still feel responsible. You just constantly look at things to see what could have been done differently.

"In this one, the only thing that could have been done differently was the individual involved to take a different course of action, not to take the actions he did. As far as we can tell, there was no golden opportunity or golden chance to turn this one around. You had three officers right there, and the incident still played out this way. Having ten more wouldn't have done any good."

The chief had had several good chats with Hutchens, who was one of 520 officers in the department, but hadn't been especially close to him. "I wish I had more time with him," he said. But he knew Hutchens to be a class act, a 27-year veteran of the force who wouldn't subject his officers to danger he wouldn't endure himself. Hutchens, Clark, and an officer who was being trained may well have saved the lives of civilians by running down Evans.

Cunningham spent much time in the hospital room with Hutchens and his family. The chief looked for hopeful signs, and thought there was one when Hutchens opened his eyes for about 30 seconds and moved his right foot. He talked to Hutchens, hoping he could hear him. "We always had the hope it would turn out differently," Cunningham said.

He would have liked to have stayed at the hospital. But Cunningham realized that the public, too, had a stake in this crisis, and it deserved timely reports on Hutchens' status and new details emerging about the shooting. Cunningham provided that through press conferences and interviews. He gave all the details he could, keeping his sadness, frustration and anger in check.

He kept his officers informed, too. "It very much is a family," Cunningham said. "These officers, we're all working together. They're seeing things that most people don't want to see and shouldn't see."

He praised their dedication, noting that they have continued to do their jobs well in the days since the shooting.

Hutchens' death was an especially hard blow, because Howard Plouff, another dedicated, hands-on sergeant with the city department, had been fatally shot just two years ago. Once again, the community support of the officer's family and the department has been strong.

"I'm hoping this is the last time we in the community have to go through anything like this," Cunningham said. "But I am also worried that it's not the last."

jrailey@wsjournal.com.
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