The Associated Press
ATHENS, Ala. (AP) -- A former sheriff’s deputy said the words to his musical tribute to two slain Athens police officers came when he awoke at 4 a.m.
“I honestly believe it was inspired by God,” Brad Pullum said.
Pullum had been friends with Sgt. Larry Russell and officer Tony Mims.
A mentally disturbed Farron Barksdale, 29, of Decatur allegedly shot the officers from his mother’s home on Jan. 2, Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely said. Barksdale remains jailed on capital murder charges.
The tragedy shook up this entire Tennessee Valley town.
“You hear about this crap, but it doesn’t happen in Athens. It happens in New York and New Orleans and Los Angeles,” said Mike Bennett, whose family has owned Bennett’s Department Store on the town square the last 27 years.
“We’re a small town” with just a 40-or-so member police force, Bennett said. “To get two of them wiped out in a matter of minutes . . . It’s just tough.”
Pullum got the idea to record and sell the song to raise money for the officers’ families after several friends heard him sing it and encouraged him. When he talked with Mims’ wife at the visitation Monday night, he told her he was working on something that might help a little.
“After that, I was on a mission,” Pullum said.
Pullum’s song goes:
“Today I pray up to the Lord above, Lord help me remember, and Lord help me to love.
“And forgive this senseless tragedy, that took this special friend from me. Help me to be strong as you welcome them home.”
The chorus goes:
“But dear friend I’ll see you again. We’ll talk about good times, and we’ll laugh until we cry.
“It’s only temporary, I believe, when friends leave.”
Pullum and Mike Cole made an acoustical guitar arrangement at Sound Cell Recording in Huntsville.
The first 75 compact discs sold quickly. Pullum has ordered more. He established an account at First American Bank so the proceeds will go to the officers’ families.
The CDs are $10 each and are available at the Athens Police Department, City Hall, Limestone County Sheriff’s Department, County Commission Annex, Railroad Bazaar locations, First American Bank, Applebee’s, and local attorney and physician offices in Athens.
Pullum’s recording is the latest in an outpouring of gifts and tributes from the community and around the country to the officers’ families and to the remaining 38 Athens police officers.
“All week, there’s been a kind of pall over all activities,” said Dana Henry, whose family owns Hyatt and Sims Paint Store. “It’s such a huge tragedy. And so senseless. It could have been any policeman. Or the Domino’s pizza delivery man.”
Hubert Aycock, owner of the hardware store his grandfather started 87 years ago on the square, said tragic as the police killings were, they forced Athens residents to rediscover something they’d begun to forget: A sense of community.
“This is such a close-knit town. Almost everybody around the square, they knew the policemen,” said the 83-year-old Aycock.