Jun 2, 2009 10:46 pm US/Central
Chicago Police Officer Remembers Fallen Partner
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
-
-
Officer Tom Vargas was with his partner Officer Alejandro Valadez, when he was shot in the head in Englewood.
CBS
-
-
Chicago Police Officer Alejandro "Alex" Valadez was shot dead in the Englewood neighborhood early Monday.
Chicago Police
No one can mistake the bond between a police officer and his patrol partner. They ride the streets together, make arrests and share personal stories. The murder of Officer Alejandro "Alex" Valadez has left his partner empty. Officer Tom Vargas was on duty with Valadez the night he was murdered. CBS 2's Jim Williams spoke with Vargas Tuesday.
"Not so good, not so good," Officer Vargas said. "It's really, really hard."
He was emotional but stoic, at times funny, and of course sad. Officer Vargas did not want to talk about the shooting that killed his partner, though he did mention it, briefly.
Instead, this was a tribute to a friend and a cop who loved his job.
In the most difficult time of his life, the day after his partner and close friend died from gunshot wounds, Officer Tom Vargas put on his uniform, went to work and described Alex Valadez.
"He was the best. You can't ask for a better friend, partner. I lost a family member yesterday, I lost a brother," Officer Tom Vargas said. "He would give you the shirt off his back. He would never stop. We were always together side by side. We were always safe. We watched each other's back all the time."
Vargas and Valadez were in the police academy more than three years ago and they were partners in the last year, working the midnight shift on the perilous streets of Englewood.
Vargas was with Valadez when a
car drove up early Monday morning and someone inside opened fire, hitting Valadez twice.
"What I saw, no one should ever see," Vargas said. "He died doing what he loved."
The two partners were so much alike. Vargas says Valadez was like his twin; people often confused them.
"I'm getting called Alex, he's getting called Tom. We'd just look at each other and shake our heads," Vargas said. "He always said he was the better looking, but I don't know."
They talked of their baby boys due to be born within a month of one another this summer.
"He was really looking forward to his boy," Vargas said. "I'm having a boy, too. That makes it that much harder. Having them together and bringing them up together."
It was a relationship forged in a squad car, doing what they wanted to do more than anything, often working 12 hours a day in a dangerous place.
"We love what we do. It's what we do," Vargas said. "We became the police to be the police. He was the police. He still is the police. He will always be the police - always."
Two men were charged Tuesday for Valadez' murder: Shawn D. Gaston, 20, and Kevin A. Walker, 21.
Officer Vargas is reaching out to his partner's family and vowing to always tell Valadez' son what a great guy his dad was.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Celebrity Watcher: Real Or Fake?
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
