“Today we will celebrate everything Jake did and represented,” is how Joplin Police Captain Trevor Duncan started Friday’s memorial service for Officer Jake Reed.
Officer Reed, Corporal Ben Cooper and Officer Rick Hirshey were all shot ten days ago responding to a disturbance at a shopping center.
Corporal Cooper and Officer Reed were taken to a hospital where Corporal Cooper was pronounced dead a short time later. Officer Reed remained on life support for several days until his organs could be donated on March 11th. Officer Hirshey was released from the hospital on Wednesday.
Officer Reed’s little brother, Sam, spoke at the service that packed the athletic center on Missouri State Southern University’s campus. He tearfully said in a letter he wrote to his brother, “There’s nothing to say to take away the pain of living in this world without you in it. The past week has felt like a miserable movie, one in which the hero never recovers. The scene where life shatters all supporting characters with a purpose that is unjust and unknown. And still, none of this feels real.”
Officer Reed had served with the Joplin Police Department for five years. He is survived by his wife.