TANYA EISERER
The family of Sgt. Donald Flusche Jr. will never forget him or the way he died.
And the second edition of Dallas police Officer Steve Elwonger’s In the Line of Duty will help others remember the sacrifices of Sgt. Flusche and the department’s 73 other fallen officers.
Sgt. Flusche died in March 2001 in a nursing home from injuries he suffered while rushing to the aid of an officer in 1992.
“We don’t want people to forget,” said Sgt. Flusche’s father, retired Dallas police Sgt. Donald Flusche Sr. “This (book) will keep his memory going on.”
Officer Elwonger’s updated chronicle includes 13 new chapters. Each two-page chapter details the events surrounding the death of a Dallas police officer. The original book, which came out in 1991, contained 61 chapters.
“I want to remember the officers who paid the ultimate sacrifice,” said Officer Elwonger, who joined the department in 1982.
Mr. Elwonger’s wife, Suzette, who is a Dallas police reserve officer, said: “It’s been a labor of love for him. The little free time he has, he puts toward the book.
“New recruits and those that are on the department can learn from what happened to those officers. And it keeps their memory alive and with us.”
Mr. Elwonger said Taylor Publishing has printed 2,000 copies of the book.
On the book’s front cover is a picture of the department’s silver Police Cross, which is awarded posthumously to officers killed in the line of duty.
The back cover features a collage of street signs at the locations where Dallas officers were killed or fatally injured. In the center, there’s a picture of the tombstone for C.O. Brewer, who in 1892 became the first Dallas officer to die in the line of duty.
The previous book ended with the death of Sunny Ma Lov, who was helping divert traffic around a multiple-vehicle accident when he was struck and killed in November 1990.
The new edition picks up with Detective Larry Bromley, who died in December 1991, when officers doing surveillance during a drug sting opened fire and, in the confusion, fatally shot Detective Bromley.
It ends with the fiery death of Officer Patrick Metzler, a gang unit officer who was working off-duty directing traffic through a North Central Expressway construction zone in late October when his vehicle was struck from behind by a man accused of drunken driving.
Among the new chapters is one about Officer John Richard Crain, who died in 1923 and had been omitted from the department’s list of fallen officers until last year. Officer Crain was on foot patrol in Old East Dallas when he died at the hands of burglars. Two assailants were subsequently executed.
The book features pictures of all of Dallas’ fallen officers, except the department’s first black officer, William McDuff, who was fatally shot on Christmas night in 1896.
Officer Elwonger has unsuccessfully scoured archives and museums looking for a photo of Officer McDuff.
Since the previous edition, four men who have killed officers have been put to death:
*Javier Suarez Medina, convicted of the 1988 killing of undercover narcotics Detective Lawrence Cadena, was executed in August.
*Vincent Cooks, who shot and killed Officer Gary McCarthy during a botched robbery in 1988, was executed in 2001.
*Bernard Amos, who fatally shot Officer James Joe in 1988 in the parking lot of a North Dallas apartment complex where the officer was working off-duty security, was executed in 1995.
*Stephen Nethery, who gunned down Officer John McCarthy at White Rock Lake in 1981, was executed in 1994.
The new edition also corrects some errors.
For example, the original book stated that the killer of retired Detective John R. Roberts, who died in December 1935, was never caught.
Officer Elwonger learned of the mistake when he received a call from Jack Hardwick, the slain detective’s nephew. Mr. Hardwick, a Keene resident who was about 9 when his uncle died, said he distinctly remembers the night his 59-year-old uncle was shot and killed as he tried to stop a robber.
Mr. Hardwick helped Mr. Elwonger determine that the killer had been captured.
“We all looked up to him. ... Uncle John was a fine man,” Mr. Hardwick said. “He was still trying to protect life and property when he was killed.”
E-mail teiserer@dallasnews.com HOW TO ORDER
Copies of Dallas police Officer Steve Elwonger’s book, In the Line of Duty, cost $ 20, plus $ 3 for shipping. Checks should be made payable to Police Press, P.O. Box 59777, Dallas, TX 75229. Proceeds benefit the Dallas Police Widows and Orphans Fund and Wish Upon a Star, a children’s charity.