A Washington town rallies around ‘Officer Mick,’ and the badly wounded cop rallies as well
Reporting from SEATTLE — Sixty-four U.S. police officers died in shooting incidents during 2016, according to final figures compiled through New Year’s Eve. But at least Officer Mike McClaughry appears to be winning his struggle not to make it 65.
“If we ask him to wiggle his right leg, most of the time he will. Raise his right arm, he’ll do it. His eyes mostly remain closed,” his daughter April McClaughry said Tuesday. “He’s made a ton of progress, but it’s still day by day.”
For two weeks, “Officer Mick,” as the 31-year police veteran is known to many, has been in critical condition, partially comatose, and watched around the clock in an intensive care unit. He was shot in the head, allegedly by a serial felon in the farming community of Mount Vernon, Wash., population 32,000, a rain-nourished “piece of heaven” as the Chamber of Commerce calls it, an hour north of Seattle.
The 60-year-old married father of three was airlifted to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center on Dec. 15 with a bullet hole in his skull. He was rushed into surgery in a weakened and unresponsive condition.
McClaughry’s progress, though slow and minimal, is still good news to Mount Vernon and Skagit County, where lately there had been no shortage of grief. The town was still recovering from the October mass murder of five people at nearby Cascade Mall in Burlington, and only a week before McClaughry was shot, a police officer was slain in Tacoma, 90 miles south.
The death of Tacoma Officer Reginald “Jake” Gutierrez, 45, and the wounding of McClaughry came about the time the region paused to remember four Lakewood, Wash., officers ambushed and gunned down as they dined at a coffee shop seven years ago. At the memorial ceremony Nov. 29, retired Lakewood Police Chief Bret Farrar recalled the public’s outpouring of support helped his department heal.
Now the public is rallying around McClaughry and Gutierrez’s family.
On Nov. 30, Gutierrez became the nation’s 61st officer shot dead in 2016 — ambushed while trying to resolve a domestic dispute. A televised funeral procession showed more than 750 law officers attending the Tacoma Dome service for Gutierrez, a 17-year veteran of the force.
Other officers later fatally shot Gutierrez’s killer, a gun-toting barber named Bruce Randall Johnson, 38, who used two children as shields and was described in court records as “just damn mean.”
After Gutierrez was buried and McClaughry was shot, another officer in the Northwest became a target. Oregon state Trooper Nic Cederberg was critically wounded Christmas night by another violent ex-con in King City, southwest of Portland. The suspect, 30-year-old James Tylka, was killed by police after a pursuit.
Cederberg and McClaughry became part of what seemed to be a regional death watch, with regular updates on their mostly unimproved conditions.
In particular, the white-haired McClaughry, as a cop on the beat, was a “father figure to many in the community,” police spokesman Lt. Christopher Cammock said, citing McClaughry’s efforts in launching educational programs to help kids get off drugs.
Well-wishers flooded the hospital and police headquarters with cards, messages, kiddie drawings and flowers while also contributing $49,000 to a GoFundMe drive to aid his recovery.
Then came something of a Christmastime miracle. Last Wednesday, as nurses were turning the still-critical McClaughry over in his hospital bed, he suddenly said “Ouch!” It was his first word since being shot and remaining mostly comatose since Dec. 15.
He was also “breathing well on his own,” said his cautiously optimistic daughter, April McClaughry. She announced the breakthrough Thursday on a Facebook page, stoking a round of cheerful comments and 1,800 likes.
April McClaughry says her father’s road to recovery will be long and unpredictable. “He’s also not hearing too well out of his right ear, which is the side the bullet exited,” she said in an interview, adding: “He isn’t doing any more talking, but you can tell he’s listening to you.”
She can’t say for sure if he hears the doughnut jokes she and others work into the conversation for comic relief. She hopes he got a lift, though, from a letter sent by a young boy. He suggested McClaughry deserved a Purple Heart because “you sacrificed your head for others’ safety.”
After he was shot, McClaughry was rescued by fellow officers who also took fire, but weren’t hit. A lengthy standoff ended with the arrest of Ernesto Lee Rivas, 44, a gang member whose criminal record includes eight felony convictions. He is charged with attempted first-degree murder. Two teenagers in the home were also charged.
As for Oregon trooper Cederberg — like McClaughry, still in critical condition — it turns out he’s on a comeback as well. Last Wednesday, he was able to speak to his family for the first time since the shooting.
“He was pretty emotional and sincerely thanked each and every doctor, nurse and all of the support staff,” said his brother Jeff Cederberg in an update on the trooper’s GoFundMe page. So far, donors have pledged $65,000 to aid his recovery.
By the end of last week, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund released its annual figures on fallen law enforcement officers in the U.S.: the body count had risen to the highest level in five years, with 64 dying in gun-related incidents and 71 others killed by traffic accidents and other causes during 2016.
It was a long list, 135 names. But if nothing else, “McClaughry” and “Cederberg” weren’t among them.
Anderson is a special correspondent.
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