Two Jeffersonville officers remain in stable condition
By Harold J. Adams
Courier-Journal
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Sellersburg, Ind., police officer Darin Broady didn’t have the words yesterday to describe his emotions when told Thursday night that one of his two police officer brothers had been shot.
“When you get a call saying ‘Get to the hospital, it’s one of your brothers’ -- I can’t tell you what that feels like,” he said.
Jeffersonville, Ind., Patrolman Keith Broady, 32, was shot once in the chest while responding to a complaint about drugs at a motel; Cpl. Daniel Lawhorn, 39, was shot twice in the leg.
Both are still listed in stable condition at University Hospital in Louisville, where yesterday their families made their first public comments since the shootings.
Lawhorn’s wife, Dana Lawhorn, credited quick action by other officers for saving her husband’s life.
The main artery in his leg was severed by a bullet, she said, and he would have bled to death if not for the quick actions by the first officers on the scene.
Lawhorn’s mother, Rebecca Croft, said her son “was moments away from perhaps not being here today” without that help.
The suspected gunman, Robert Dattilo, 37, killed himself Friday night following a day-long standoff at a Louisville house.
Meanwhile, one of two other men initially held in the shootings but released after questioning was arrested yesterday.
Kyle Bieber, 19, is charged with assisting a criminal, chief Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said.
Mull said the charge was based on Bieber allegedly assisting Dattilo in getting a room at the Motel 6 while knowing Dattilo faced arrest warrants in Hart and Jefferson counties in Kentucky.
Bieber and Vincent Windell Jr., 22, had been released Friday after convincing investigators they were not involved in the shootings.
Yesterday, the families of the two wounded officers said the men saw each other Sunday morning for the first time since they were shot.
“It was very emotional to see Broady walking into Daniel’s room … and to see my husband sitting up,” Dana Lawhorn said. “It was a good feeling.”
She recalled that her husband’s first words to her after his surgery were, “I love you all. How’s Broady?”
In the moments after her husband was shot, Dana Lawhorn said, Officer Tom Mitchell “grabbed a hold of a dog lead (borrowed from a K-9 officer at the scene) and wrapped it around his leg for a tourniquet.”
Assistant Police Chief Kevin Morlan applied pressure to the leg, she said, while Cpl. Greg Sumler talked to Lawhorn to keep him alert until emergency medical personnel could take over.
Lawhorn “would not be alive” if it weren’t for the actions of those men, Dana Lawhorn said.
Just after the shootings, Keith Broady’s other brother, Jeffersonville Detective Jason Broady, made his way to Keith’s home to rush his sister-in-law, Kristen Broady, to the hospital.
“That was probably the worst moment of my life,” said Kristen Broady, who is six months pregnant with the couple’s second child.
She said she felt some relief when she got to hospital and found her husband conscious, assuring her, “Babe, I’m OK.” But because he still hadn’t gone into surgery, she said, she remained fearful.
The families gathered in the hospital auditorium yesterday. Kristen Broady was flanked by Jason Broady, 39, and Darin Broady, 29.
Jason Broady said the family is grateful to fellow officers, emergency workers and the community for the support they’ve shown since the shootings, “especially the prayers,” he said.
Both wives were asked about the possibility of their husbands going back to work at the police department.
“I think it’s in his blood (but) it’s a long road ahead,” Kristen Broady said.
Dana Lawhorn said she and her husband haven’t talked about that yet but added, “I’ll support him with whatever he wants to do.”
Copyright 2009 Courier-Journal