CLOSING ARGUMENTS
Pat King
EOW: Nov. 20, 1997:
A Stand-Up Guy
Pat King was a sergeant in the
Long Branch Police Department
who was killed in the line of duty on
Nov. 20, 1997. I list his rank only for
reference purposes, as this article
is not about the police officer, but
the man.
THOMAS
The 20th anniversary of Pat’s
death is nearing. On so many occa-
SHEA
sions when an officer is killed in the
line of duty, the public views his or her pictures
and learns the details of the murder. There are
usually a few articles published about him or her,
maybe one the following year, and then they slowly trickle
away. This is human nature, albeit unfortunate. I didn’t know
Pat that well, because in October 1997 I had just been hired.
However, I would like to tell you two quick stories — one per-
sonal and one told to me by a close friend — about the kind
of guy that Pat was.
Pat was our “training officer,” responsible for coordinating
all activities for the nine of us recruits soon to be entering the
police academy at the time. Pat’s younger brother Kevin was
one of my academy mates. Pat labeled our group “the misfits,”
a term we definitely deserved, as we took little seriously. On
one occasion, Pat came into the briefing room where we were
assembled and shocked all of us as he started screaming. Be-
fore this particular incident, we had only known him to be a
soft-spoken guy. He must have been taking a lot of heat from
the brass within the police department about how we were all
behaving. Needless to say, we didn’t test him again.
A few weeks later, I was leaving the department after some
in-service training, in preparation to start the academy. I saw
Pat as I was walking towards my car. He said, “Shea, get over
here!” I thought I was in trouble. At the time, I was wearing
a flopp y, Guinness beer hat I had purchased over in Ireland,
a place that I had recently visited. Pat said, “You sure you’re
ready for the academy?” I said, “Absolutely.” He then looked at
me in the eye and with a very serious face, stated, “Where did
you get that hat?” I informed him that I recently bought it in
Ireland. He said, “I want it.” I said, “Excuse me?” He said, “Do I
stutter? I want your hat. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have
this job, because Joe [one of the other sergeants on
the hiring board] didn’t want you. So, the least you
can do is give me your [expletive] hat!”
I started to take the hat off. I didn’t know it at
the time, but this was Pat’s sense of humor, real-
ly deadpan. He didn’t mean a word that he was
saying. He then broke out into a big, goofy smile
and said, “Hey Shea, I’m screwing with you. When
you graduate from the academy, let’s go get a beer.
There is this Irish club, called the Sons of Shille-
lagh, in Belmar. You wanna grab a Guinness there
sometime after you’re done?”
I thought this was incredibly considerate, as
I didn’t know anyone, being the only one of us who was not
from Long Branch. I have since learned that this example is
one of a million why everybody loved the guy so greatly. Even
multiple individuals whom he had arrested paid their re-
spects at his funeral.
Bill Richards, a retired director of public safety from Long
Branch, told the other story to me. He was Pat’s close friend
for many years. Pat had agreed to help paint a room in a new
house that Bill had just purchased. For some reason, Bill had
to leave the job for an extended period of time. He came back
hours later to learn that Pat had painted the entire house and
wouldn’t accept a dime. I asked Bill, “He wouldn’t accept any
money? Why?” Bill stated, “Because he was my friend.”
I could probably tell you thousands of similar stories about
Pat, if I simply interviewed all of his friends and colleagues in
Long Branch.
Many times, when people die, others tend to canonize
them and edit out the less favorable aspects of their personal-
ities. Like the rest of us, I am certain that Pat was not perfect;
however, the cumulative sentiment is that he was extremely
well respected, kind, loyal and authentic.
In other words, he was a stand-up guy. d
Thomas Shea retired from the Long Branch Police Department
in 2017, where he was assigned to the Patrol Division, Investi-
gations Bureau, Street Crimes Unit, Training and Internal Af-
fairs. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Centenary Uni-
versity. He is an active member of Retired Local 600.
www.njcopsmagazine.com
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