2 Wounded Policemen Get $2,000 Each
By John Tuohy, Indianapolis Star
One could say Timothy “Jake” Laird is still working for the Indianapolis Police Department, three months after being fatally shot.
His parents said just that Tuesday.
Debbie and Mike Laird presented $2,000 checks to two police officers wounded in the Aug. 18 shootout in which their son died.
“This keeps Timothy’s memory alive. It keeps him on the police force,” Debbie Laird said.
The money for officers Tim Conley and Leon Essig came from the Jake Laird Memorial Fund, which has received $22,000 in donations so far. That money will assist IPD with new equipment and programs and help officers facing financial hardship.
“Not a single day goes by when we aren’t talking about it,” Chief Jerry Barker said of Laird’s shooting in a ceremony at police headquarters. “Not a night goes by when we aren’t having nightmares about it.”
Laird was killed by gunman Kenneth C. Anderson, 33, while Anderson was terrorizing a Southside neighborhood near the 2700 block of Dietz Street. Anderson, firing a high-powered rifle at random, ambushed officers responding to 911 calls.
Officers Andre Troxell and Peter Koe also were shot.
Conley was shot in the abdomen and leg; Essig was hit in the arm. Koe, who shot and killed Anderson, was hit in the leg, while Troxell was struck in the hand.
Conley hopes to return to work in January at the latest.
“I’m fighting real hard because of the friend I lost,” Conley said. “I’ll be back at work soon.”
He said he undergoes five hours of physical therapy five days a week.
“There’s a lot of pain, but it’s getting better,” he said.
Essig said he hopes to be back on the street in August.
He said he will have surgery to repair tendons in his arm, wrist and hands next month.
Community support has been overwhelming, he said.
“It is funny going into a store,” Essig said, “and strangers who recognize you want to come up and shake your hand.”
The Lairds said there also is no shortage of people willing to give to the police fund or to one established for the slain officer’s daughter, the Kaylee Laird Trust Fund, which has $200,000 in it.
“We kept having people say, ‘What can we do?’ ” Debbie Laird said.
The Lairds said the loss of their son doesn’t get easier, but they are able to cope by thinking how happy he was on the police force, Debbie Laird said.
“Jake thought of the force as his family,” Mike Laird said. “These officers were his brothers.”
What happened to her son was evil, Debbie Laird said. “But God was ready for him.”