By Paulr Garber
Winston-Salem Journal
Winston-Salem policeman David Honeycutt, 34, a sworn officer since 2005, will play the bugle today and Sunday during National Police Week observances in Washington. Police Chief Scott Cunningham said the department is proud of Honeycutt’s bugling skills. A9: Winston-Salem police officer David Honeycutt packs his bugle that he will play today and Sunday in Washington.
A solemn observance
Two passions and memories of his own close call with death in a gunbattle will merge this weekend when Winston-Salem police officer David Honeycutt plays taps in front of thousands of officers from across the world in Washington.
As part of National Police Week observances, Honeycutt will twice don his white gloves and police dress blues to pay tribute to officers who gave their lives in the line of duty. The two ceremonies, one today and one Sunday, will bring together his love of music and law enforcement.
Honeycutt, 34, a sworn officer since 2005, works in the department’s crime suppression unit, which puts him in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city.
But before that, he was an aspiring musician, good enough at the French horn to earn a master’s degree in 2004 from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Honeycutt considers it a solemn duty to play taps for fallen officers -- two Winston-Salem officers have died in the line of duty since he’s been on the job, Sgt. Howard Plouff in 2007 and Sgt. Mickey Hutchens in 2009.
And Honeycutt himself was involved in a domestic violence call in which he barely missed being shot at close range and a fellow officer and close friend, Keith Starling, was wounded.
That’s why he finds taps -- on sheet music a fairly simple song comprised of only 24 notes -- so hard to play, despite his years of musical training. He said he has to distance himself from the meaning of the song to be able to focus on the technical aspects of playing.
“With all the emotion that goes behind it, it can be really difficult,” he said. “You can’t play taps and be upset at the same time.”
Honeycutt said his love of music began when he growing up in central Georgia. But by the time he finished at the School of the Arts, he realized there weren’t many options for him to make a living at it. He figured he could go to New York to play on Broadway or to Los Angeles to do film scores, but those jobs seemed so competitive, so cutthroat that they didn’t have much appeal.
“I didn’t think that was who I wanted to be, so I stayed local,” he said.
He always respected police officers and thought the job had a certain “wow factor” to it, he said.
So he joined the Winston-Salem department, but he didn’t leave music totally behind.
During rookie school, he once played at Ziggy’s as part of a performance of the rock opera Tommy, which has a part for French horn. Honeycutt also plays in the Piedmont Wind Symphony.
Before joining the crime suppression unit, Honeycutt worked as a patrol officer, usually on the west side of the city.
While on duty in June 2007, Honeycutt responded to a domestic violence call at an apartment off Old Vineyard Road. He arrived to find a man and a woman in the apartment. The woman yelled that the man, Reginald Ross, had a gun.
Honeycutt pulled his gun, and Ross started shooting. Honeycutt heard three bullets whiz by, and one struck Starling, his fellow officer, in the thigh. Honeycutt turned his back briefly to Ross while he checked on Starling.
He heard another shot but was not hit. Honeycutt didn’t find out until Ross’ trial last year that Ross was trying to shoot Honeycutt in that brief moment that he turned away. The woman in the apartment knocked Ross’ arm down, sending the bullet into the floor.
Ross retreated into the apartment still holding the woman, moving behind a table with a chair turned upside down. Honeycutt fired at Ross, and Ross fell back. Honeycutt thought he had hit Ross, but the bullet had struck a metal bar on the chair and broke apart, missing Ross.
Ross surrendered after a standoff that lasted more than 20 minutes. He was convicted in August of attempted first-degree murder, among other charges. He is not expected to be released from prison until December 2047, according to state Department of Correction records.
Honeycutt admitted that it took some time to deal with the shooting that wounded Starling and narrowly missed him.
“Three months later, I was walking down the aisle of a grocery store and I realized, ‘Wow, someone tried to murder me,’” he said.
Honeycutt bought a cornetfrom a fellow officer in 2005. He soon began playing at police memorial tributes and joined the department’s honor guard, which also will appear in Washington.
Police Chief Scott Cunningham said the department is proud of Honeycutt’s bugling skills, which is why it put in an application for him to play this weekend.
“It’s very moving to hear him play,” he said.
Cunningham said Honeycutt’s selection is a credit not just to the department but to the whole community.
“It shows we have talent and that it supports law enforcement,” Cunningham said.
Honeycutt has been practicing one to two hours a day, playing scales and etudes and playing taps to prepare for this weekend.
“It’s a duty I accepted,” Honeycutt said. “I feel that I’ll be representing the fallen officers in our department, and it’s an opportunity to represent all the fallen officers in the country.”
Copyright 2011 Winston-Salem Journal