Doyle Burke - Death as a Living

DEATH AS
A L IVING

Doyle Burke and Lou G rieco

Copyright 2021 Doyle Burke and Lou Grieco

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Published by Inkshares, Inc., Oakland, California

www.inkshares.com

Edited by Delia Davis and Kaitlin Severini

Cover design by Tim Barber

Formatted by Kevin G. Summers

ISBN 9781950301034

e-ISBN 9781950301041

LCCN 2019936610

First edition

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

This book takes you behind the police tape. Some of the crimes, and descriptions of the crime scenes and victims, may be disturbing to some. The graphic descriptions of the scenes are not dwelled upon, but are essential to adequately tell this story. Even so, reader discretion is adv ised.

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to both of my fami lies.

Yes, both fami lies.

First, my personal family. My loving wife, Nicole; son, James; daughters, Michelle and Katie; and seven grandchildren. Especially Katie, who was the first person to actually read this book. Without them, my work means not hing.

This career requires you to drop whatever youre doing and leave your happy home at a moments notice. You then race to a gruesome crime scene, do your job, and return home. Once home, you have to forget what youve seen and be Daddy instead of Detective. If only it were that simple. Its difficultif not impossibleto forget the things weve seen, but we try. The family of a homicide detective is a tough job itself. My family always understood, and that was important. Likewise, I tried to be at every school conference, game, and party, physically if not ment ally.

I would also like to dedicate this book to my other fa mily.

The men and women of law enforcement, the thin blue line. Especially those who have served, and are still serving, on the Dayton Police Department. And yes, those of us in law enforcement are brothers and sisters, and together we are strong. I worked with unbelievably strong men and women whose courage is often unheralded and most times not fully appreci ated.

To the families of those officers who gave their lives, I admire you. Ive stood at many memorial services and wondered how you must feel. The death of a police officer is major news, for a while. Everyone talks about it and wants to help, for a while. Eventually, the public forgets and moves on. We never move on; we c ant.

To the families of the homicide victims, I hope you knowsolved or unsolvedI gave it my all. While I cant bring your loved ones back, I tried to at least bring a sense of closure to you.

I must give a special thank-you to my wife, Nicole. Without her, this book would not be possible. While it seemed a simple undertaking at first, this book, while a labor of love, took an enormous amount of time. Time away from my family. But my wife encouraged me. This is a book that needs to be written, she would say. When I completed a chapter, I would take it to my wife like a little child bringing Mommy their homework. I was proud of my work, but then reality hit. My wife would read it and hand it back to me. Now, dont get mad, but it makes no sense, she would say. What? This is a masterpiece , I thought, then she walked me through it. Three of the hardest words for me to say are: She was right. With her help, my random thoughts became the chapters that became this book. I cant thank her enough, and I love her even more for telling me the truth and making this book better. Even the strongest detective needs a strong home, and I have been blessed in that res pect.

Preface

O n August 4, 2019, the national nightmare came to Dayton. A gunman in the Oregon District, the citys premier entertainment destination, opened fire in front of Ned Peppers Bar. Connor Betts fired 41 rounds into a crowd in less than 30 seconds, killing nine people.

Within twenty seconds of the first shot, local police were already engaging with Betts. Thirty-two seconds after his first shot, Betts was dead. Police had used deadly force, legitimately, and stopped a fatal threat. While the deaths of nine bystanders is unbelievably tragic, and many more people were injured or traumatized by the events, the quick response of the officers undoubtedly prevented further deaths. Those officers were considered national heroes, and rightl y so.

In the wake of the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis police, many cities were convulsed with anti-police protests. I had to visit the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory in downtown Dayton. I found many officers facing down angry protestors. The first officers I saw? The very squad that stopped Connor Bettss fatal ass ault.

And to think you guys were national heroes less than a year ago, I said to them.

The events of 2020 left me angry and sad. On the one hand, we had an officer causing the death of a man in his custody. This was not in any way a justified use of force. This was a crime. Even worse, there had been three other officers present who had not intervened in any way. I can understand public anger about these events, which are profoundly disturbing and have harmed the profession of policing immeasura bly.

Yet, at the same time, we had protests demanding that we defund the police, which struck me as lunacy. Protestors held signs that said, ACAB, meaning All Cops Are Bastards. This was completely unfair to the vast majority of police officers, who were, I can assure you, horrified by George Floyds de ath.

I wrote this book to reflect on my own career as a police officer and a homicide detective, to show readers what this job is really like and how it is really done. Its a job that has evolved over the forty-three years that Ive been in law enforcement, and must continue to evolve. We were in what we thought were the final edits for this book when George Floyd died. Those events caused us to pause, to think, to edit again. But they did not change my mission, which was to illuminate what policing and detective work is like, and what it looks like when its done w ell.

This is critical. I fear that weve lost the ability to communicate with each other in this country, to have rational discussions about issues, to disagree peacefully without burning the bridges we need to survive. Anyone who is holding a sign that claims all cops are bastards is not interested in any kind of rational deb ate.

But we police officers can be our own enemies. A few paragraphs earlier, I noted that most police officers were horrified by George Floyds death. I know this because we talk to each other. But the things we say to each other, were often reluctant to discuss with people outside the profession. This is for a number of reasons: were afraid of being used politically; we worry that laypeople wont understand what we go through; and we believe that policing is, in a sense, a family. While you might be willing to argue with your brother or sister, sometimes even bitterly, you generally dont take sides against them publ icly.

This book is, for me, a leap of faith. I know that some veteran officers will read this book and I hope they enjoy it, but Im probably not going to reveal anything they dont already know. I wrote this book thinking of two other audie nces.

The first is the general public. I want to take you behind the thin blue line and the yellow crime scene tape to help you better understand the world I come from, which is not perfect, but does more than its share of good.

The second audience is future police officers. We need to draw good people, from all backgrounds, into policing. And if policing is a family, its natural for family members to wish for better things for the next genera tion.