Black Memphis Police Director Makes a Strong Statement After Officer is Fatally Shot [Video]

02 Aug, 2015 by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

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Another brave police officer was fatally shot in Memphis last night. Officer Sean Bolton made a typical traffic stop. He was shot multiple times and died instantly. Bolton was only 33 years-old. Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong stressed that all lives matter… regardless of race, creed, color, economic status or what profession they hold. That’s true leadership on Armstrong’s part. I’m sure the MPD and Armstrong are grieving – their hearts are broken over Bolton’s murder. This is the third police death in four years there. It takes a special kind of courage to risk your life every day for others, with nothing in return for the most part except derision, violence and possibly a bullet.

Image source: WMC-TV

From TheBlaze:

Speaking to reporters after Officer Sean Bolton was fatally shot during an apparent traffic stop Saturday night, Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong had a message for the community.

“As a community we say so often as a theme — black lives matter. And at the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves, do all lives matter? Regardless of race, creed, color, economic status, what profession that person holds,” Armstrong said. “All lives matter. And this is just a reminder of how dangerous this job is.”

“One life is too many, but how do you put a value on somebody’s life? How do you say one life is more important than another,” Armstrong said later during the press conference. “So, again, what we need more than anything right now is just your prayers again for this MPD family as well as this officer’s family.”

Police say the white 33-year-old officer was shot multiple times during an apparent traffic stop and had been with the department since 2010. Armstrong said they received a call to report the shooting from a citizen who used a police radio.

Bolton’s death is the third police officer death in four years with Armstrong at the helm of the police force, he said during the press conference. In December 2012, Officer Martoiya Lang was killed; Officer Timothy Warren’s life was taken in January 2011.

“We’ve been here before, sadly to say,” Armstrong said. “We’ve been here before.”

After Lang’s death, Armstrong had some strong words to say as well.

“So often we get side tracked with some of the other things that go on, we have an officer who goes out and does something inappropriate and it gets all the media attention,” he said in 2012. “But at the end of the day, we have officers like this officer who leaves her small kids at home, come put it all on the line.”

Police have not released a description of the gunman — or gunmen — responsible for Bolton’s death, but the suspect is apparently still at large.

They haven’t said who the suspect(s) are and they are still at large. You can bet they’ve got everyone out there looking for this scum. Obama has divided us so much along racial lines that we see every event through colored glasses anymore. All lives matter – every single one of them. And on the front lines of the conflict every hour of every day are our boys and girls in blue. They have families too… little children, spouses and parents who love them. They don’t do what they do for the money obviously. They feel called to protect others and put bad guys away. Lately, they have become bigger and bigger targets for those that hate and those that have a political agenda where cops are painted as the bad guys and are viewed as expendable pawns in a twisted game of power and Marxism. Officer Bolton will be missed. He was taken from all of us far too soon and way too violently. My prayers are with his family and the MPD. I hope you catch those who did this and they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.