[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 156 (Monday, November 8, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H11678-H11679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO SERGEANT RICKY TIMBROOK

  (Mr. WOLF asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to pay tribute today to a young man who 
was a policeman in Winchester, Virginia, which is in my district, who 
was shot and killed on Friday night, October 29. Sergeant Ricky 
Timbrook was killed as he was chasing a suspect down the street.
  Sergeant Timbrook's death has shocked and saddened the entire 
northern Shenandoah Valley. More than 3,000 people attended his funeral 
last Thursday, many of whom were law enforcement officers from all over 
the area and around the country. According to news reports, he may be 
the first Winchester police officer to have been shot and killed in the 
line of duty.
  Ricky was 32 years old. He and his wife Kelly had just completed the 
construction of a new home. They were expecting their first child, a 
boy, who is due on Christmas Day.
  He joined the Winchester Police Department almost 8 years ago. Just 
over a year ago, he was promoted to sergeant in charge of a brand-new 
department, the Special Enforcement Team.
  I want to extend my deepest condolences to Sergeant Timbrook's family 
as we pay tribute to him and to law enforcement officers and their 
families everywhere who routinely go into harm's way to protect us.
  My father was a police officer on the streets of Philadelphia and I 
know the worry a police officer's family can feel when a husband, 
father, brother, or son goes out the door each day to begin their tour 
of duty.
  According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 
more than 14,000 officers have died while performing their duties. On 
average, one law enforcement officer is killed somewhere in America 
every other day, and an average of 160 officers die in the line of duty 
every year.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record an obituary about Sergeant 
Timbrook and an editorial which appeared in the Winchester Star 
November 2, 1999, as follows:

                [From The Winchester Star, Nov. 2, 1999]

     In the Line of Duty--In Policeman's Death, All Are Diminished

       It says something about the quality of life here in the 
     northern Valley that, before the horrific events of last 
     Friday night, it had been more than 60 years since a local 
     law enforcement officer had fallen in the line of duty. 
     However, it also says something about today's society that 
     even here, in our largely peaceful corner of the world, 
     violence can erupt and snatch from us the life of a fine 
     young officer.
       The slaying of Sgt. Ricky Lee Timbrook should prompt us to 
     pause and reflect not merely on the utter fragility of our 
     worldly existence, but on the tenuous line on which our 
     social contract rests. The primary reason people, down 
     through the ages, have formed communities is for reasons of 
     mutual comfort and security. This contract, of course, 
     entails a provision for public protection--i.e. the police. 
     The presence of the men and women ensured with that 
     protection--the fabled ``thin blue line''--quietly assures us 
     that the social contract is being enforced.
       Thus, when one of these officers--one of these men and 
     women who take an oath ``to serve and protect'' us--falls in 
     the performance of this essential duty, we as a community 
     feel it. First and foremost, of course, we feel for the man 
     himself, because we know he died so that we might live free 
     from the worries daily addressed by our men and women in 
     blue. And, to be sure, we feel for his loved ones--
     particularly a baby, yet unborn, who

[[Page H11679]]

     will never know its father--and for his fellow officers, to 
     whom the awful knowledge is hammered home anew that they live 
     on the proverbial edge, that violence awaits their kind with 
     every routine call, that death walks closer to them than to 
     the rest of us.
       However, our tranquility, too, is shattered, in the 
     knowledge that one of the exemplary people we pay to step 
     forward and protect us has been taken from our midst. We 
     grieve because Ricky Timbrook no longer rides in his patrol 
     car through our streets, and no longer walks the streets of 
     this town.
       By all accounts, Sgt. Timbrook was a fine policeman, but an 
     even better man, one to whom we confidently entrusted our 
     security. We at The Star knew him not only in his role as a 
     crimefigther, but also as the schools' DARE officer, the 
     crew-cut policeman who one day, two years ago, posed happily 
     for a photo with the winner of DARE program's annual essay 
     contest. Others, of course, knew him better--as husband, son, 
     brother, friend, and comrade.
       And so, in his untimely death, we are all diminished--and 
     immeasurably saddened.
                                  ____



                       sergeant ricky l. timbrook

       Ricky Lee Timbrook, age 32, of 2876 Sheffield Court, 
     Winchester, Virginia died Saturday, October 30, 1999 in the 
     Winchester Medical Center.
       Mr. Timbrook was born October 5, 1967 in Winchester, 
     Virginia, the son of Richard Timbrook and Kitty Stotler 
     Timbrook of Bloomery, West Virginia. He was a sergeant with 
     the Winchester Police Department where he had been employed 
     for eight years. He attended the Grace Evangelical Lutheran 
     Church of Winchester and was a member of the Winchester 
     Fraternal Order of Police Lodge. He was a graduate of 
     Fairmont State College where he received a Bachelor of 
     Business degree in Criminal Justice.
       Mr. Timbrook married Kelly L. Wisecarver on July 27, 1997 
     in Winchester, Virginia.
       Surviving with his wife and parents, is a sister, Kimberly 
     Hundson of Capon Bridge, West Virginia.
       A funeral service will be conducted at 11:00 a.m. on 
     Thursday, November 4, 1999 at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic 
     Church in Winchester with the Pastor James H. Utt, Pastor 
     Jeffrey D. May officiating. Interment will be in Mount Hebron 
     Cemetery.
       Pallbearers will be Kevin Bowers, Matthew Sirbaugh, Robert 
     Ficik, Frank Pearson, Julian Berger and Alex Beeman.
       The family will receive friends at Omps Funeral Home on 
     Wednesday evening from 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.
       Memorial contributions may be made to the Ricky L. Timbrook 
     Children's Outreach Fund, c/o Chief Gary W. Reynolds, 126 N. 
     Cameron Street, Winchester, Virginia 22601.

                          ____________________