Pr. George’s Officer Wanted to Help Area, Colleagues Recall
by Jamie Stockwell, Washington Post
The soulful, somber strains of an old Scottish hymn wafted over the parking lot of a Suitland church yesterday as eight Prince George’s County sheriff’s deputies emerged from the sanctuary into the afternoon sunlight, bearing the flag-draped coffin of slain colleague Elizabeth L. Magruder.
About 1,000 law enforcement officers from across the Washington-Baltimore region filled Church of the Great Commission to bid farewell to Magruder, 30, one of two deputies shot to death Aug. 29 while trying to take a man into custody.
“She was so young, had been on the force less than two years and was just beginning to realize her full potential,” Gov. Parris N. Glendening told mourners. “Deputy Magruder had a vision. She had little doubt in her heart of the person she was, and the person she was to become.”
Many officers wept and embraced as Magruder’s husband, Derwinn Magruder, surrounded by dozens of relatives and friends, accepted the condolences of politicians, pastors and strangers. The fatal shootings of Magruder and Deputy James V. Arnaud, 53, were the first in the 306-year history of the sheriff’s office. Arnaud was buried Tuesday.
Derwinn Magruder held 3-year-old son Devinn tightly as they stood at Magruder’s open coffin. The husband leaned down and kissed his wife one last time, and the son wiped his father’s tears and kissed his cheek.
“This is the saddest occasion for us in our history of the agency,” County Executive Wayne K. Curry said outside the church. “It has ingested our entire community in pain and anguish. Deputy Magruder made the ultimate sacrifice.”
The funeral was attended by a host of state and local politicians and officials, including Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Prince George’s County Police Chief Gerald M. Wilson and County Council member M.H. Jim Estepp.
Magruder was remembered by her family and colleagues as a playful, gentle woman determined to make a difference and giving something back to the county in which she grew up. Cpl. Mike Jackson, head of the county’s sheriff’s association, said Magruder’s commitment to her profession was apparent the night she died, as she was working an overtime shift.
That night, Magruder and Arnaud went to a small brick house in Adelphi with a court order to take James R. Logan, 23, into custody for a psychiatric evaluation. Police said Logan came out of his bedroom shooting and then fled in a car with another man.
Both were arrested during the weekend and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, and both remain jailed without bond. Two others have been charged with being accessories to the slayings, accused of helping Logan evade authorities. He was captured early Saturday.
Speaking in the church, Sheriff Alonzo D. Black called Magruder a “dedicated deputy” and posthumously promoted her to deputy sheriff, first class. He recalled that she graduated from the training academy with honors and was “one of the most physically fit deputies.” Magruder had to drop out of her first academy class because of a foot injury, but she completed her training a year later.
“She did what most of us will never do,” said Jackson, head of the sheriff’s union. “She went through two academies while we complain and moan about one.”
Magruder began her law enforcement career in the Upper Marlboro courthouse, like all rookies, and was assigned to the Bureau of Court Services at the time of her death. She had finally found her calling, her family said, after years of working various jobs, including a stint with United Parcel Service.
The Rev. Joshua K. White, the church’s pastor, asked mourners to show their gratitude to every law enforcement officer they meet, in Magruder’s honor.
In a letter read during the service, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said of Magruder, “She stepped up to the plate and served as a frontline soldier in our fight against crime.”
Derwinn Magruder choked back tears as he told the more than 1,200 mourners that he will “never get over [his wife’s death]; I just have to make it through.”
In a letter to his wife published in the funeral program, Derwinn Magruder wrote that he and Devinn “now have an angel leading us through the game of life. . . . God now has two deputies policing the heavens for Him. You made the ultimate sacrifice for mankind.”
After the service, as bagpipes pleaded in the late summer air, an army of officers stood at attention. A color guard, made up of officers from every jurisdiction in Maryland, raised its flags as Magruder’s coffin was placed in a hearse. More than 100 officers on motorcycles, and hundreds more in their marked cruisers, led a mile-long procession to Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton.