By Tim Logan
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
CENTREVILLE — Hundreds of police officers, black bands over their shields, came Saturday to this small Metro East city to remember police Lt. Gregory Jonas, who was killed Tuesday as he worked to serve its residents.
Joining the police officers were Jonas’ friends and family and the people of the small city Jonas gave his life to protect.
The mourners filled the pews at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church and a room next door. People who could not get in the church stood outside on South 50th Street and listened to the service - “a homegoing celebration” - on speakers.
They heard friends, colleagues and pastors describe the 59-year-old Centreville policeman as a kind man and “a peacemaker,” a gentle, caring officer. They heard two of his daughters talk about how he came to their track meets and taught them to ride a bike without training wheels. They clapped and “amen-ed” with the playing of the Gospel song “May the Works I’ve Done Speak for Me.”
Police have charged Lemuel Antwan Houston, 22, with the slaying. Police say he shot Jonas three times early Tuesday morning at an apartment complex just blocks from the church. He didn’t want to get caught with a gun, police say. Houston is in the St. Clair County Jail.
Jonas spent most of his career in Alorton and Centreville, said Centreville Police Chief Larry Wynn. Years ago, they patrolled the streets together, Wynn for Alorton, Jonas for Centreville. Many late nights, they were the only police on the streets in their neighboring cities. When Wynn took the chief’s job in Centreville, one of his first calls was to Jonas, to make sure he’d stay on.
“He said, ‘You know I ain’t going nowhere,’” Wynn recalled. “Greg could have gone anywhere. But he wasn’t going anywhere because this was home.”
And he was loved there, said Ethel Branson. as she stood outside after the service.
Jonas could be tough when he needed to be, she said, but he wasn’t too quick with the handcuffs. His approach was more fatherly.
Branson lives in the same apartment building as Jonas’ mother. He would come by every morning after work to check on her. He checked on the rest of the residents, too.
“We’d feel safe,” Branson said. “He was looking out for us.”
A final viewing lasted 45 minutes after the service because so many people were in line. Then his colleagues with the Centreville Police Department loaded Jonas into a hearse and a huge procession headed to Sunset Gardens of Mercy Cemetery in Millstadt.
As the hundreds of cars wound through Centreville and East St. Louis, people stood along the roadside and watched from their front porches. They came out of bars and hair salons, some women with their smocks still on, and from the apartment complex where Jonas died. Some waved. Some took pictures. A few held hats over their hearts.
Outside Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville, one man stood in the shade of a bus shelter. He watched police car after police car after police car roll by, lights flashing in honor of one of their own.
And he saluted every one.
Copyright 2009 St. Louis Post-Dispatch