[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1413]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        DETECTIVE JERRY WALKER: TEXAS LAWMAN--LITTLE ELM, TEXAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, Texas has lost another one of our 
finest men in blue.
  Last month, Detective Jerry Walker responded to a call of a man 
brandishing a rifle and screaming and hollering in his backyard. So the 
officers arrived, and they ordered the man to drop the weapon, but the 
outlaw did not comply. He ran into the house and started firing his 
weapon--shooting at the officers from inside the cover of his home.
  During the shoot-out with the officers, the outlaw was killed, but 
Detective Walker--a 48-year-old father of four and an 18-year veteran 
of the force--was shot during the shoot-out. This is a photograph of 
him.
  His fellow officers rushed to Detective Walker, and he was later 
airlifted to the hospital, but he died at the hospital. As his body was 
transported from the hospital, dozens of officers and emergency 
responders lined the street, saluting their fallen detective. The song 
``Amazing Grace'' could be heard on bagpipes as his body was taken away 
and traveled down the street.
  Not only was Detective Walker an outstanding member of the Little Elm 
Police Department, but he also wore another uniform. He wore the 
uniform of a soldier in the United States Army. Walker served our 
country both at home and abroad.
  Mr. Speaker, Little Elm is in north Texas. It has a population of 
about 3,500 people. It has approximately 21 police officers, and 
Detective Walker was the longest-serving officer in that town. 
Detective Walker's youngest child is only a few months old. His four 
children need to remember that their father died a servant of the 
people of Little Elm, Texas.
  He will be remembered by his family, his friends, and his community 
as a model officer who protected the innocent. Most importantly, he 
will be remembered as someone who genuinely cared about the people of 
the community that he lived in.
  Before he became a detective with the Little Elm Police Department, 
Walker served as a school resource officer at Little Elm High School. 
Students there remember him as someone who could talk to the students 
and put them at ease. In fact, the kids just loved him. They often 
would arm wrestle with their beloved officer during lunchtime.
  One such student, Lionel Valdez, met Walker at school at about the 
same time that Valdez started getting into trouble. Valdez' father had 
walked out of his own life; so Walker took on a parent's role in making 
sure that Valdez kept his nose clean and stayed out of trouble while he 
was in school. He even went so far as to make sure that he showed up in 
class. Years after Valdez graduated from high school, he would return 
to the school and have conversations with Walker--the one man who 
showed him the light during his darkest times as a student at school.
  Jerry Walker was a realtime hero.
  Detective Walker, Mr. Speaker, is the sixth officer killed in the 
line of duty in the first 17 days in 2017. Six deaths in 17 days is 
tragic. Our Nation must honor those men and women who wear the badge--
the badge of honor, sacrifice. We must back the blue, Mr. Speaker--back 
the blue--and back officers like Jerry Walker of Little Elm, Texas.
  And that is just the way it is.

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