Sept. 14--ROCKY MOUNT -- Some worked alongside Bobby Gene DeMuth Jr. Some knew him only by reputation. Some had never heard his name before Saturday.
But all of the nearly 2,000 law enforcement officers who attended the slain N.C. Highway Patrol trooper's funeral on Wednesday considered themselves part of DeMuth's extended family.
"If one goes down, it's just like one was taken from your own family," Wilson County Sheriff's Capt. Levi Williams said. "Law enforcement is one big family."
Police officers, sheriff's deputies and state troopers from throughout North Carolina and across the United States attended DeMuth's funeral at Englewood Baptist Church. They came to comfort his family and to support each other.
"We put our lives on the line every day," Williams said. "We all feel like one day, something like this could happen to us. We knew that when we took the job."
DeMuth was killed early Saturday when a robbery suspect's car hit him on U.S. 64 outside Spring Hope during a high-speed chase. He and another trooper were placing stop sticks in the road to disable 40-year-old Williamston resident Christopher McCoy Rodgers' car. Police chased Rodgers into Nash County after he allegedly restrained and robbed a woman in her Raleigh apartment.
Rodgers struck and killed DeMuth as he sped past, according to the Highway Patrol.
Authorities have charged Rodgers with murder and related charges in the trooper's death, Highway Patrol spokesman 1st Sgt. Jeff Gordon said Wednesday.
"We knew the charges were going to come," Gordon said. "We knew it was a tragic and violent death. We're going to let the justice system run its course."
DeMuth is a 12-year veteran of the Highway Patrol and was stationed in Rocky Mount. He worked at the Wilson County Sheriff's Office from 1996-98.
Out-of-state officers joined hundreds of North Carolina police in a show of solidarity at the funeral and burial. Mourners wore black bands across their silver badges.
"They often talk about the brotherhood of law enforcement," Wilson Police Sgt. Jackie Boykin said. "They spoke of it in the service as well. I think this really just illustrates for the family and for the general public how much we really support each other and have each other's back."
A flag-draped casket bearing DeMuth's body arrived at the church on a horse-drawn carriage just before 11 a.m. Four black horses, each ridden by a state trooper, led the caisson to the front doors.
In front of the church, state troopers and other lawmen lined in four long columns saluted as the carriage passed.
Sherry Webb, a family friend of the DeMuths, handed out miniature American flags for onlookers to wave during the funeral procession.
"It's just humbling that they show that much respect for him and his family," said Webb, a Nashville resident who worked with DeMuth's wife. "He was a wonderful man, a great father, a great husband."
State police from Arkansas, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Georgia joined lawmen from nearly every North Carolina county at the funeral. Police from Wilson, Sharpsburg, Bailey, Middlesex, Tarboro, Pinetops and Wilson and Pitt community colleges were on hand along with sheriff's deputies from Wilson, Nash, Edgecombe, Wayne and Wake counties.
North Carolina's largest city police departments -- Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Raleigh -- were represented along with the Greenville, Wilmington, Wake Forest, Carolina Beach and Lumberton police agencies.
Dying in the line of duty is a risk every law enforcement officer must face, Boykin said.
"This is what we signed up to do," she said. "Every one of us who puts on a uniform every day, we could be dealing with any kind of trauma or critical event. People expect us to be there, and we go. That's what he was doing that day. He was going to back up his partner. There wasn't any question about it, he just went."
Blue bows lined the route from the church to the cemetery in the nearby town of Red Oak. Residents stood beside the road as Highway Patrol, police and sheriff's cars passed on their way to DeMuth's burial.
"Everybody honors soldiers like that, and they forget that there are policemen and firemen and patrolmen who give their lives for the greater good," said Bill Jones, who watched the procession with his wife, Margaret.
Bill and Margaret Jones wore blue ribbons provided by the group Concerns of Police Survivors, which helps the families of officers killed in the line of duty. They hoped the show of support from both residents and police would comfort DeMuth's widow.
"When she sees all these people standing out here and all these patrol cars, I just think she's going to be amazed," Bill Jones said. "I'm sure she was proud of her husband, but I think she's going to be even more proud."
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Copyright 2012 - The Wilson Daily Times, N.C.
