WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) spoke on the floor today to remember New Castle County Police Sergeant Joe Szczerba, who was murdered in the line of duty late Thursday night.

- As Delivered on September 19, 2011 -

 Mr. President, I rise today to honor a hero.

I rise to remember the sacrifice of a man whom I am proud to have known.

I rise to remember Sergeant Joe Szczerba of the New Castle County Police, who was killed in the line of duty just this past Thursday night.

Sergeant Szczerba and several other officers responded to a disorderly conduct call in New Castle, Delaware just before midnight. The officers arrived on the scene, set up a perimeter. Sergeant Szczerba spotted the suspect and gave chase. A seasoned officer, Sergeant Szczerba attempted to subdue the man and a very tough fight that ensued he was stabbed.

The suspect continued to resist arrest. Although seriously wounded, Sergeant Szczerba worked with three other officers to take the suspect into custody. Only then did he acknowledge his injury. Officers on the scene performed CPR until County paramedics arrived, but it wasn’t enough.

Sgt. Szczerba didn’t make it.

When I was County Executive for New Castle County for six years after a particularly long or difficult day, as I was heading home, I would flip on the police scanner in my car and I’d listen to the chatter — to the calls from dispatch and the officers responding. I was always mindful in those hours, that here I was heading home to my family and to safety and here were our officers heading out on patrol into a dark and uncertain night.

My phone rang at 5:00 am this past Friday morning. It was my friend, Chief Mike McGowan the county’s police chief — his voice weighted down with grief.

It was the worst news I’d ever received in public life.

New Castle County had only lost one previous officer in a line of duty death: Corporal Paul Sweeney was killed in a traffic accident nearly 40 years ago in 1972, but never had an officer been murdered in the line of duty before.

Each year as County Executive, when I attended our annual police memorial, we quietly prayed that we would never know this day.

Just roughly two weeks earlier, Delaware had marked the second anniversary of the killing in the line of duty of another brave a decorated local police officer, Patrolman Chad Spicer of Georgetown.

It was just too soon for this to have happened again. We all know that there is risk, grave risk in policing, but this couldn’t have happened again. Delaware is a state of neighbors and we are still as a state mourning Chad’s death — we could not have possibly lost another brave police officer.

But we did. And this Friday he will be laid to rest.

My state, Mr. President, is grieving.

In the days that have passed, I have grappled with two questions. I’ve asked myself, over and over, how is it that people continue to do these terrible and dangerous things? How is it that senseless violence continues to claim the lives of the innocent?

And as I spoke at the graduation ceremony this past Friday for the Delaware State Police and the Municipal Police Academy and looked at the young men and women right in front of me about to the their oath and put on their badge, and take on, willingly, this most dangerous and honored profession another question emerged to me. Why is it that we continue to have men and women who volunteer, who step forward, and who take on this most important and difficult task of preserving the peace, of protecting our communities? And what more can we do to support them, to protect them, and to honor them?

These questions are ones I challenge all of us to consider, Mr. President.

Sergeant Joe Szczerba was on the New Castle County force for 18 years. He was greatly respected by his colleagues on the force and the community he served. His wife, Kathy, his brothers, Ed, Gerald and Stephen, and his sisters, Nancy and Karen, and a host of nieces and nephews survive him.

Heaven today, Mr. President, is a safer place today because Joe Szczerba is on patrol. He was a good man and a great cop, and he died a hero. He died doing what he was called to do and he died doing what he loved to do.

For that, all of Delaware is grateful.

We will treasure his memory and honor his sacrifice.

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