by Mark Walters
I’ve been talking and writing about the subject of gun rights and the Second Amendment for many years and just when you think you’ve seen it all, something terrible happens to remind you that you haven’t. That “terrible something” unfolded in the Olde Towne section of Arvada, CO, on Monday, June 21st, 2021.
Officer Gordon Beesley, a 19-year veteran of the police force, was responding to a suspicious person call when he was brutally attacked and murdered by Ronald Troyke, a crazed, whacko hell-bent on murdering as many “pigs” as possible that day, according to The Denver Post. He would not live long enough to fulfill his wishes.
Shortly after murdering officer Beesley in cold blood, Troyke returned to his truck and retrieved an AR15 style rifle. He then trotted back down the street towards his victim, shooting out windows in a cruiser and firing shots in the air, intent on murdering more police officers and likely anyone who got in his way. Fortunately for the community, good Samaritan, Johnny Hurley did just that and got in his way.
Hurley, a lawfully armed citizen and witness to Troyke’s violence, retrieved his own pistol to fatally shoot Troyke and end the murderer’s rampage with his handgun. Mission accomplished. What happened next is nothing short of horrific as Hurley would be shot and killed moments later by a responding Arvada officer while holding the killer’s rifle. In a statement from the Arvada Police Chief, Link Strate, Hurley was lauded as a hero who saved many lives, and his death was referred to as a terrible tragedy.
As the events are being investigated the normal questions we would ask have so far gone unanswered. Did the responding officer command Mr. Hurley to drop the weapon, etc? Clearly, this was an incredibly dynamic and fluid incident with bodies on the ground and we can only imagine what that first responding officer must have been thinking. My heart goes out to that person as well as Officer Beesley, his family and community hero, Johnny Hurley, and his loved ones.
I hope the cop-hating killer painfully rots in hell.
Sadly, thanks to a political climate that fosters the hatred of police officers and de-funding of their departments, this type of cop killing is on the rise. Fortunately there are millions of law-abiding armed citizens who have the means to do what Johnny Hurley did–take swift and decisive action to save lives. Also fortunately, it is extremely rare that a citizen CCW is shot by responding officers. While the gun-grabbers will no doubt seize on this one incident to prove that CCW holders only “get in the way,” the statement from Chief Strate sets the record straight–Johnny Hurley, that law-abiding hero who tragically lost his life that day, saved countless officers and civilian lives with his actions and his gun.
Is there a teaching moment here? I’m sure there is somewhere but at this juncture I’m not willing to dissect this terrible incident other than to say that Mr. Hurley should have a statue erected in Olde Towne alongside a statue of officer Beesley. I do not feel it is my place to criticize Mr. Hurley for handling the killer’s weapon, for instance. He may have had good reason to do so such as the killer still being alive and fighting for the weapon? We don’t know. What we do know is that cop-murderer Ronald Troyke is solely responsible for the events that unfolded that day and if Mr. Hurley hadn’t been there to stop him, we would likely be writing about a far more tragic ordeal than we already are.
God Bless Officer Beesley and citizen hero Johnny Hurley. My prayers to the responding officer and the department and city now having to deal with the result of actions brought about by Troyke.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]