从5月4日开始的每一天, the first bill on the agenda for the Oregon state Senate has been a 决议 to honor a small-town reserve police officer shot 和 killed by a teenager during a car chase in 1969.
从5月4日开始的每一天, 参议院因未达到法定人数而休会, 让加里·拉沃恩·桑普特的家人等着, 54年来他们一直如此, 为了他们父亲的牺牲得到国家的认可.
代表. 大卫·冈伯格，奥的斯民主党人，他提出了 决议 还没有放弃在立法会议上的努力. He keeps hoping that at some point in the next two weeks he’ll be able to call Sumpter’s children with good news, 让他们从朗维尤开车过来, 华盛顿, 看到参议院投票纪念他们的父亲.
“How do we explain to somebody who’s about to be honored that we just can’t get to it today?冈伯格问道。. “我不知道该怎么说. 我们经常道歉.”
迈克尔·萨普特, 加里的儿子, 他不理解参议院共和党人正在进行的罢工, 并询问参议员是否还在拿薪水. They are – each senator makes about $253 daily between salary 和 per diem payments intended to cover meals 和 lodging – though the senators participating in the walkout also began facing daily $325 fines on June 5.
“What kind of job can you have where you don’t go to work 和 you still get paid?他问. “我无法控制它. My mom’s 83 和 in poor health, 和 I was hoping it would happen in her lifetime, that’s for sure.”
Gary Sumpter was a reserve policeman in Toledo 和 the only officer on duty on March 15, 1969, when a call came in about a driver speeding toward Newport from a party in Corvallis, 根据 纽波特新闻时报档案. 司机, 17岁的迈克尔·梅斯特, led an Oregon State Police trooper 和 a Newport police officer on a high-speed chase on the winding, 在桑普特加入之前的森林公路.
萨姆特和州警, 威廉·克莱顿·杜尔, 在229高速上追上了梅斯特, 在西莱茨以北约9英里的树林里. Meester stopped his car, pulled out a hunting rifle 和 shot Durr, wounding him. 桑普特拔出自己的枪还击，为杜尔提供掩护, 但梅斯特从萨姆特的车门冲了进来, 杀了他.
Meester sped off, running into a roadblock near Lincoln City where he shot 和 killed himself. In Toledo, Sumpter’s wife 和 young children received the news they never wanted to hear.
父亲去世时，迈克尔·萨姆特只有9岁. 他的妹妹朱莉(Julie)今年7岁，对他没有多少清晰的记忆.
迈克尔记得他是个风趣、爱开玩笑的人. Gary Sumpter loved to hunt 和 fish, 和 he took his son with him on trips. 有一天,, he woke Michael up wearing a Batman mask 和 shirt – the caped crusader was huge in the 1960s, with comics 和 a popular live-action television series – 和 yelled “Wake up! 我需要你的帮助!他跑出了房间.
“It took 20 years to realize who it was, that it wasn’t Batman,” Michael laughed.
他还记得葬礼, 和 how the police chief urged his mother to buy a nicer coffin that cost three times as much – even as a small child, 迈克尔知道承担这笔费用对这个家庭来说很难. 在葬礼上, 全国各地的警察和政要都在观看, Michael was in charge of carrying the triangular folded flag that had been draped over his father’s coffin 和 told he shouldn’t cry. 他这么做了，并为此愧疚了很多年.
加里的死使这个家庭陷入了不确定之中. Marcia Sumpter was a housewife with two young children who had never worked outside the home. 因为加里是一名志愿预备役军官, his family didn’t qualify for the same aid as families of fallen full-time officers.
Michael’s Boy Scout troop took up a collection 和 gathered $36 for the family, 差不多相当于今天的300美元. 这个家庭 sold Gary’s Toyota L和 Cruiser – their two poodles scratched ecstatically at the garage door when they heard the car start, 以为加里终于回家了. And at the end of the summer they moved to Longview, where Marcia took a job at Sears.
这个家庭, lawmakers 和 Toledo police aren’t sure how or why it has taken this long for the state to formally recognize Sumpter. 托莱多现任警察局长迈克尔·佩斯, 谁在2019年接任, noticed when going through files that it was odd that no one in the department had put Sumpter’s name in for recognition 和 tracked down the family, 然后联系了贡伯格.
“One of my major goals that I’ve had in mind was to make sure that he was recognized for his sacrifice 和 to do it in an honorable way,佩斯说. “I reached out to Michael 和 asked him if his dad had ever received a medal or anything like that. They said no, 和 I couldn’t find any documentation that supported him receiving a medal. 所以当我们得到牌匾或者我们得到公路专用, I want to make sure that the family is recognized with the honors that his father 和 their relative deserve.”
Recognition from the Oregon Legislature means more than just a few minutes of attention on the House 和 Senate floors 和 a parchment copy of the 决议, 虽然阵亡军官的家属也会收到. It’s also a required step before the state Department of Transportation can install a highway memorial sign, reminding everyone who drives past that Officer Gary LaVaughn Sumpter gave his life to protect a fellow officer.
佩斯说，他发现持续的僵局令人沮丧, 他希望塞勒姆的政客们能尽快达成解决方案. 林肯郡, the cities of Toledo 和 Siletz 和 the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians all support the highway sign, 他说, 他们只是在等待州政府的行动.
Knowing that the Sumpter family is still waiting is one of many heartbreaking aspects of the continued stalemate, 公司Gomberg说.
“That’s why these circumstances are so heartbreaking in so many different ways,” 他说. “有大笔的账单. 还有一些其他的账单在更有限的方面是大的, 这可能是他们一生中最大的一次, 我们一直把它带过去.”
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