San Antonio Line of Duty Death
Update 11/17/05

San Antonio Express-News -printed with permission-

Ken Rodriguez: Police officer's widow: A voice in shadow, a hero in the night

The emergency signal from a patrol car sounded in the dead of night.

From her radio console in the San Antonio Police Department's dispatch office, Kimberly Wheeler looked up. On the computer screen before her, Badge No. 1093 began blinking.

The number belonged to her husband, John.

Kimberly radioed John for information. He did not answer.

She called a second time.

Silence.

Kimberly did not know that John's patrol car had been hit by a drunken driver. Or that John's vehicle was in flames.

What she did know was that her husband was in trouble, and she had to make sure no one else got hurt.

Over the next 10 minutes, Kimberly dispatched officers to secure the scene. She sent others to block off the road at Culebra and Loop 410.

At the behest of a patrolman, she called for fire rescue. At the request of a sergeant, she radioed for a lieutenant.

Because her job demanded it, Kimberly alerted traffic investigators and monitored the activities of 25 other officers under her watch.

How did she do it? How did she manage to follow dispatch protocol with a husband who would not answer her call?

Four weeks after John's death, Kimberly offers this: "You don't have time for emotion. You don't have time to think about and concentrate on what's really going on.

"You have to send officers to block off the highway. And you have officers telling you what to do. I've got one screaming at me to get this. I've got another screaming at me to get that. You've got a whole list of people to get to make the accident scene secure."

Police dispatchers do not make headlines. They do not get shot and stabbed on the job. They do not get hailed and feted for bravery. They do save lives, but almost nobody notices.

John Wheeler noticed. In 2003, he responded to a robbery. A man carrying an AK-47 assault rifle responded with 21 rounds to John's patrol car.

As John lay bleeding, Kimberly went to work on the radio. She called him twice. He did not answer.

Then she began directing police traffic. "I had a nut with an AK-47, and we didn't know where he was," Kimberly recalls. "At the same time, I had officers responding to the scene who were in immediate danger, and I had to protect them.

"I refused to get off the radio until I knew that crime scene was secure. That's what I do."

What Kimberly does remains in shadow. But John always tried bringing it to light.

Acclaimed as a hero after recovering from bullet wounds to the neck and leg, John felt the honor was misdirected. He often said, "All I did was lay there. Kimberly did all the work."

Kimberly, 37, has not been back to work since John died. There are personal belongings to sort, pension boards to visit, papers to file. "I've got so much going on," she says, "I haven't had time to grieve."

She is a strong woman, Kimberly is. Strong enough to cover the backs of other officers while her husband lay wounded in the neck and leg.

Strong enough to secure an accident site while her husband lay in a burning car.

Police Chief Albert Ortiz once told me he doesn't know how she does it. I don't either.

No one this side of heaven knows how many lives Kimberly has saved. John might know. If only we could ask. If only he could speak.

When I last spoke with John, he expressed great pride in the way Kimberly did her job when he was shot. "If it happened again," she said then, "I hope I would act the same way."

The call for John's shooting came at 1:52 a.m. Two years and two weeks later, he was pronounced dead at 1:52 a.m.

Behind the tragic symmetry is a voice of calm on the police radio. The voice of a hero named Kimberly.

Postscript:

Kimberly Wheeler wants to thank everyone who gave to a memorial fund for John.

"So many people contributed, but I don't have the names of everyone who gave," she says. "I want to assure them that something will be set up in his name with that money."

Original activation:

San Antonio Line of Duty Death
10/16/05

Kevin,

I recently attended your customer service class in San Antonio, TX at Bexar Metro.  My name is Kathleen Wyatt and I work for New Braunfels PD.  I am writing you today with a heavy heart and a sick stomach.  Yesterday morning, 10/14/2005 in the early morning hours a San Antonio Police Officer was killed in the line of duty.  Unfortunately that is what we do for a living and if it were that simple I would not even be writing this letter.  My husband is a San Antonio Officer as well, so now this is making more sense to you, but the Officer that was killed was John Wheeler, who's wife also happens to be a dispatcher for San Antonio .  This story has a very tragic history.  In 2003, Kim Wheeler was working her console and she received the distress call when her husband John was shot twice in the neck while responding to a robbery.  He fought his way back and was returned to full duty just this past January.  Well as you might have guessed, Kim was on duty yesterday morning and received the distress call when John was killed.  He was working traffic detail and was hit by a suspected drunk driver at estimated speeds of 90-100mph.  He was trapped in his patrol car that was a raging inferno.  I am not asking for anything other than maybe getting the message out to dispatchers everywhere about this incident and maybe suggesting that people make a donation if they can, to the memorial fund that has been established, the information is available at www.mysa.com under news-local.  I think Kim deserves to know there are other dispatchers out there thinking of her and praying for her and her family.  She is a true inspiration to other dispatchers of what it means to be a true professional no matter what the circumstances.  Chief Albert Ortiz paid her a wonderful public compliment even in the face of adversity during his press conference.  San Antonio has a strong union and I know she will be taken care of as "An Officer's Wife" but I think she should be recognized also as a Phenomenal Dispatcher. 

The mailing address for SAPD Dispatch is as follows:

214 W.Nueva
San Antonio , TX 78207
(210)207-7484

www.sanantonio.gov/sapd

also the memorial find:

Officer Wheeler Memorial Fund
San Antonio City Employees Federal Credit Union
Account# 688810
P.O. Box 830968
San Antonio , TX 78283-0968
(210)229-1128

Burial at Ft Sam National Cemetery

I will also forward you the memorial page from the funeral home.  The San Antonio Police Officers Association website has no information at this time however their website is: www.sapoa.org

Thanks for anything you can do.
Kathleen W. Wyatt

Kevin Willett
PSTC & 911 CARES
www.pstc911.com - www.911cares.com