 Our Christmas Edition |
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He was in the wrong spot
at the wrong time at Xmas
of TheColumnists.com
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...Andy Murcia |
Christmas was just days away and the packed new white snow had been coming down for a week. It would surely be a white Christmas in Chicago.
Chicago Police Officer Wallace Bell, an Afro-American, was tall, slim, and wore horn rimmed glasses. He worked in the watch commander’s office as his secretary. Bell was good at clerical and detail type work. Our commander, Capt. William Toller, enjoyed discussing electrical things with Bell when the shift settled down to a slow roar.
Officer Bell had the entire week off before Christmas. He had lots to do. While his wife was at work, he sipped his second cup of coffee alone, jotting down his errand route geographically to save time. He also started toying with a police scanner he had recently purchased from Capt. Toller. The small electronic device allowed Bell to hear fellow officers responding to calls even when he was officially “off duty.” Today he would tune in to the police calls emanating in the police district area of his home, not the district where he worked as a cop. He picked the device up along with a pile of clothes for the dry cleaner and headed out.
Bell was raised on the tough south side of Chicago, so he knew the turf as good as anyone. He was so mild mannered and soft spoken that you might make him for an accountant or perhaps a doctor, but not a cop.
His first stop would be
the dry cleaners which was located a few doors from the Jewel
Tea Food Supermarket, where he intended to pick up some holiday
goodies. As Bell drove along with his police scanner turned on,
he listened to the dispatcher dishing out the calls:
“See the landlord about the dice game in the hallway--”
“Sarge, can you take that in with the beat car as we have
a fight at the same location.”
“Anyone else near by to assist?”
Bell might have smiled as he pictured in his mind some guy getting
caught using crooked dice and the other players turning him upside
down to get their money back.
Bell started to get out of his parked car at the dry cleaners when he heard the dangerous felony call on his scanner: “Armed robbery in progress! Attention all citywide units, we have an armed robbery in progress at the Jewel Food Store!”
Numerous police cars immediately responded on the air with their beat numbers to take the call in. Bell looked towards the Jewel store just in time to see a tall, slim black man come running out the front door, holding a gun to his side. Split seconds later a marked squad car slid to a stop near Bell. Officers had their guns pointed at him but Bell quickly showed the officers his police ID while saying the direction of the suspect’s flight. Bell and the two uniformed officers pursued the offender on foot. They now had him in view, but feared taking a shot because of other people in the area. One of the uniformed officers called in the suspect’s description as he ran.
The offender ran down a residential side street with a “T” alley. As the stick-up man got into the vestibule of a multi flat apartment building, he found he couldn’t get the interior door open. He was like a cornered rat and twice as dangerous. Holed up in the vestibule, he began firing at the three officers who quickly hit the snow on their bellies. The two uniformed officers were about 40 feet from Bell. Together the officers had the suspect wedged in at a “V” angle.
The offender crouched inside the vestibule firing his gun at the cops. Bell could see the rear alley from his position and the two uniformed officers. Several more shots were exchanged and one of the uniformed officers was hit and lay bleeding on the snow pile. His partner was applying direct pressure to the blood-pumping wound, while radioing in “police officer shot, need ambulance on the double.” Bell & the injured officer’s partner returned fire at the shooter to keep him hemmed in until help arrived.
The responding squad cars. sirens screaming, raced towards the building as fast as the snow slippery streets would allow. One marked police car arrived at the top of the “T” alley position. From this newly arrived officer’s view, all he could see was the uniformed officer shot on one snow pile and Bell 40 feet away on another pile, firing his gun. He could see that Bell was not in uniform, was a male black, and appeared to be slim and tall. Before Bell or the other uniformed officers could identify Bell as a brother cop to the newly arrived officer--the new officer quickly fired multiple rounds at Bell, mistaking him for the stick-up guy who had already shot a cop.
The bullets hit Bell with uncanny accuracy in vital areas of his head and body. Officer Bell died almost instantly, laying face down in the snow. His right hand limply held his snub-nosed revolver while his left hand gripped his small badge holder that contained his Chicago Police Star and photo I.D. card.
The stick up man subsequently surrendered and was convicted. He was surely the cause of this tragic sequence of events.
Officer Bell and I had worked occasionally together when the commander needed an extra man in his office. Bell broke me in on the clerical paper work required to run a police shift. We enjoyed some good camaraderie as we worked making out the A & A sheets (attendance & assignment). At the end of the shift Bell went his way and I went mine. We never socialized after work.
I did attend Officer Bell’s funeral as both a member of the police honor guard, and as a member of the St. Jude Police League. It would be my first of all too many funerals during my time on the force.
We cops who worked with Bell lined the steps of his Church in full dress uniform complete with white gloves. Our batons were raised as if they were swords forming an arch for Bell’s casket, family and friends to come through. I will never forget seeing his young wife dressed in black, as she had to be assisted up and down the Church steps. Her slender legs were visibly shaking in their gathered black nylon covers. The police bagpipes slowly played “Amazing Grace” and we all saluted Officer Bell, his wife and his family. It was all too sad for this then rookie cop. My eyes watered as I tried to hold my jaw firm to keep from crying out loud. I mean, after all, it was Christmas Eve--a time when we were all supposed to be so happy for the birth of Christ–ironically just as a brother cop collected the promise that the Son’s birth brought to us all. I was sad, cold, and, just then, I hated the hell out of my job.
The reason I write this story now after several decades is twofold. One because thecolumnists.com has been my only opportunity to ever tell this story in print. Two, because I feel compelled to clear up a scurrilous accusation that came about later.
At the time of Bell's death, some people tried to make the case that he was the lookout man for the heist. They tried to make Bell's affininity for his police scanner a tool of criminality. This NEVER sat well with me nor was anything ever proven in court. Even dear friends of mine who also knew Bell to this day still think that he was in on the job. To those dear friends and to all you readers I sincerely say this; “Officer Bell died a hero cop and he was not a criminal, or I don’t know a bad guy from the Pope. That police scanner was only a hobby he and our watch commander enjoyed toying with.
Wallace Bell was just a cop I worked with occasionally. We were not what I would call “friends,” but just friendly to one another. I have no reason to defend Bell beyond my basic sense of fairness and my cop’s “sixth sense” pride in knowing people and their character or lack of it. I also dislike anyone alleging bad things after a person is dead.
Bell died in my opinion simply because he fit the description of the real stick-up man, and more, because he was a victim of the world's worst case of bad luck.
Capt. Toller felt terrible when he heard how the scanner he had sold to Bell indirectly led to his death. I know this because Capt. Toller and I use to car pool to work and he told me so on more than one occasion. He also never neglected to say, “may God rest his soul” after mentioning Bell’s name.
Capt. Toller died of a heart attack some years ago but, like me, he, too, always thought of Officer Bell’s story as Christmas time would roll around year after year. This story serves to remind me that I should never take for granted any Christmas, as none of us know what danger could befall us at any time. Little did Officer Bell know that such a simple errand as going to the dry cleaner's shop would be the death of him.
This Christmas when we gather with family and friends, I hope you will let yourself go and show your affection freely to all those you care about. Christmas is not just about “business gifts” or sending cards to hundreds of names; it’s way more than that. I try to think of all the good reasons to be thankful and merry, but not the least of which is believing that no matter what, the birth of Jesus Christ gave us the best gift of all–eternal life. Be happy with those who are near to us, of course, but also remember those who left their mark on our lives in some significant way, as Wallace Bell did on mine, and let the bells ring in their honor, too.
Happy birthday Jesus!
Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy, New Year to all!
© 2002 by Andy
Murcia. The illustration is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection,
1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA.
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