By Jenny Hurwitz, and Charlie Chapple
The New Orleans Times-Picayune
Read Officer Down: Corporal Linden “Beau” Raimer
COVINGTON, LA. — As a miles-long funeral processional snaked through Covington en route to pay respects to Deputy Hilery Mayo on Wednesday, another cruel blow was delivered to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office.
A deputy was killed and another was badly injured when a sudden, violent thunderstorm deluged the funeral procession about 4 p.m., toppling a large pine tree that crushed the deputies’ patrol car.
The deputies were traveling from the funeral service in Mandeville to Mayo’s burial at Pinecrest Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Covington.
Cpl. Linden “Beau” Raimer, 35, of Madisonville, who was driving, was killed when the tree struck the cruiser on West 21st Avenue at Johnson Street, about half a mile from the cemetery, authorities said.
He was immediately transported to St. Tammany Parish Hospital in Covington, where he was pronounced dead.
The passenger, Deputy Marylin “Mary” Mayo, 26, of Slidell — no relation to Hilery Mayo (read Officer Down: Deputy Hilery Mayo) — is listed in critical condition with serious spinal injuries, authorities said.
“What can you say,” Sheriff Jack Strain said. “This is the second tragic loss in our agency in less than a week. We lost two promising young men with bright careers.”
‘State of shock’
The irony of the second tragedy, occurring during the funeral of a deputy, was not lost on Strain, who said his agency will have to bond together to cope with yet another loss.
“As a team and group of professionals, we will help each other through this,” he said. “Although I know most of us will get on our knees tonight.”
Covington Fire Chief Richard Badon said law enforcement officers and firefighters that were first called to the scene were stunned beyond belief.
“All of us are just in a state of shock,” said Badon, who called in a crisis counselor to console some of his firefighters.
“We just looked at each other and couldn’t believe it was happening.”
Covington firefighters said the car apparently was moving slowly in the procession when high winds brought down the tree.
“It was coming down in sheets with mothball-size hail. You couldn’t see anything,” said David Pittman, chief of Fire Protection District No. 5 in Folsom, who was riding in the procession about 20 cars behind the patrol car. Pittman said he heard over the Covington Fire Department radio that a tree had fallen and hit a sheriff’s patrol car.
He said he was with department volunteer Kenneth Szalajewski, a paramedic, when the call came over the radio, and they decided to go help the deputies.
“When we got there, Covington firemen and police and sheriff’s deputies all were all working feverishly to save their brethren,” Pittman said. “They were all working as a team, trying to do what they could. You could see the love and concern in their faces.”
State Trooper Louis Calato, who was in the procession several vehicles in front of Raimer’s patrol car, said it had started hailing when the tree fell on the car.
‘An act of God’
While the incident is under investigation by State Police, Calato said he did not consider it a crash.
“It was an accident,” he said. “An act of God.”
Dozens of law enforcement officers milled outside the emergency room of St. Tammany Parish Hospital after the accident, awaiting word on Mary Mayo’s health.
They lined up behind an ambulance, applauded and spoke words of encouragement as she was carried out of the emergency room on a gurney about 6:40 p.m. for transport to Tulane Medical Center.
Mary Mayo has been with the Sheriff’s Office since Oct. 7, 2005, and works in the communications division.
Raimer, who worked alongside Hilery Mayo in Criminal Patrol District 4, had been with the department since June 17, 1997.
The latest fatality marks the second time in less than a week that a sheriff’s deputy has been killed in a vehicular accident while on duty — and a stunning blow to a group of men and woman still reeling from recent loss.
Tears and thunderstorms
Hilery Mayo, 32, who died Saturday morning when his patrol car hit a tree near Folsom, was the first deputy to be killed on duty in 27 years.
Mayo and Deputy Mark Bott were headed east on Louisiana 40 near Folsom, on their way to investigate a report of a body in the road, when their cruiser veered across oncoming traffic lanes and rammed into a tree. Mayo died at the scene.
The report about the body proved unfounded.
Bott, 41, of Franklinton, was injured and underwent surgery to his foot and shoulder after the crash.
The fact that Mayo’s funeral was marked by thunderstorms seemed fitting Wednesday, mirroring the tears from mourners that crowded the Church of the King in Mandeville, where his service began about 2 p.m.
Those seated passed around large boxes of tissues, which had been placed on aisle seats for sharing.
His sister, Jennifer Mayo Mooney, spoke of her brother’s softer side, recounting his humble upbringing in Covington and his love for his wife and family.
“Our ‘Bubba’ — that’s what we called him — had a tender heart,” she said. “He loved deeply and well, and there will never ever pass a day we don’t think of him.”
Mayo was born in Mobile, Ala., but lived in Covington his entire life. He was the first of his family to graduate from college, his sister said, and he served for a decade as a member of the Sheriff’s Office.
A slide show of pictures from his life — shots from childhood, his wedding day and a hunting trip, among others — flashed on twin screens that flanked the altar before the service.
The Rev. Glynn Robinson, who officiated, said Mayo’s sense of humor was one of many things he would always remember about the deputy.
“I got pulled over by him twice,” he recalled, eliciting a murmur of laughter from the crowd. “It was one of those things — he laughed at me, and I laughed back.”
The service was punctuated by claps of thunder and the steady drum of rain on the roof. The burial in Covington was delayed by a blinding thunderstorm so severe that it forced funeral-goers inside, where they waited out the storm.
Within an hour, the sun had emerged. Mourners slogged through a puddles and mud to reach the grave and stood in stark silence as pallbearers transferred the flag-draped casket to its resting place.
The sound of trumpets playing “Taps” signaled the end of Thursday’s funeral — and the start of yet another round of grieving for many of the attendees encircling the deputy’s fresh grave.
Copyright 2007 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company