Chattanooga Police Sgt. James Timothy Chapin died Saturday from a gunshot wound received while responding to an armed robbery at U.S. Money Shops on Brainerd Road.The heartbreaking death of Chattanooga Police Department Sgt. Tim Chapin in the line of duty on Saturday morning is another grim reminder of the perilous nature of law enforcement work. The men and women who willingly stand between the lawless and the law-abiding elements of society do so with the certain knowledge that their choice of career puts them squarely in harm's way on a daily basis. The gunfire in Brainerd on Saturday and its sorrowful aftermath bring that truth home to residents of Chattanooga and the surrounding region.
Even as the investigation continues of the Saturday confrontation between Chapin and his fellow officers and the alleged assailant identified as Jesse R. Matthews, a fugitive from Colorado, the facts of Chapin's death and the wounding of Officer Lorin Johnston reverberated across the city, the region and the nation. Fellow members of the police department, other members of local law enforcement agencies and officers from across the country were hard-pressed to speak of the event or of their deceased fellow officer without visible emotion. Area residents mirrored those feelings. It was an altogether understandable and appropriate emotion, a touching tribute to the man who lost his life in the line of duty.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which will be in charge of the overall investigation, and other agencies ultimately should provide a conclusive account of what happened Saturday in the shopping area near the intersection of Brainerd and East Brainerd Roads. The agencies are correct to take their time to assemble evidence in the pursuit of truth and justice. It is a practice that Chapin, by dint of years of experience in his department, knew, accepted and rigorously followed in his own work.
The case against the alleged perpetrator of Saturday's crimes will be made over time and move through the judicial system at what might seem to many to be far too leisurely a pace. The process will culminate in a trial before a judge and a jury at some point in the future. That's the way it should be. Neither raw emotion nor a rush to justice should compromise the judicial system.
Those who serve in law enforcement support that time-honored system. They also proudly and rightfully call themselves the "thin blue line" that separates those who abide by the law from those who willfully violate it. Chattanooga's thin blue line is thinner today than it was at the beginning of what proved to be Chapin's last shift.
The 27-year veteran of the department leaves behind a loving wife and two children, who must now deal with a grief few others can know. But even as they mourn, they can take pride, as surely as the city and its police department do, in the bravery their husband and father exhibited on Saturday and throughout his career, and in the service that he willingly gave to protect this community from harm.