70 Officers Line Street for Age 5 Boy Whose Dad Was Killed in Line of Duty
No one would doubt that police officers make amazing sacrifices for their communities.
Less a job than a calling, wearing the blue means that you’ll have to often have to sacrifice days and nights of ceaseless effort, your peace of mind, your soundness of body — and sometimes your life.
Terre Haute, Indiana, police veteran Rob Pitts was one such officer who made that ultimate sacrifice. Pitts was one of a quartet of investigators looking into a homicide case.
On May 4, the group was approaching an apartment complex to confront a suspect. But the suspect began shooting as they approached.
During the ensuing firefight, the suspect was fatally wounded. However, so was 45-year-old Pitts.
As police forces tend to do, the boys in blue did everything they possibly could to honor their fallen comrade. A motorcade of over 570 vehicles escorted his body to Center Ridge Cemetery in Sullivan, Indiana.
While the hearse glided past the police station, a radio call went out, and it said, “On May 4, 2018, Terre Haute Police Department Officer Robert S. Pitts answered his final call. While investigating a homicide, Officer Pitts was shot and killed by the suspect.
“There is no greater love than a man that would lay down his life for another. Terre Haute Police Department Officer Robert S. Pitts, 196, is 10-42 [i.e., has ended his duty]. He has gone home for the final time.”
The officers of Terre Haute didn’t stop there, though. When Pitts’ 5-year-old son Dakota returned to school on May 14, his father’s brothers in arms were waiting for him.
A full 70 officers from Terre Haute and deputies from Vigo County lined the sidewalk where Dakota would walk.
As the shocked youngster made his way down the row of men, he was presented with a SWAT T-shirt and a badge.
Pitts’ sister Kelli Jones said the sight gave her goosebumps.
“He will definitely know his dad was a hero,” Jones told WTHI. “Blood doesn’t always make family, and I think the blue family went above and beyond.”
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