HARRISONBURG, Va. — Hundreds of mourners gathered for a memorial service here Wednesday, paying tribute to John Painter and Vashon “J.J.” Jefferson, two security officers and close friends who were fatally shot last week on a small college campus at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight
Not far from tiny, private Bridgewater College, where the two men worked and were gunned down Feb. 1, throngs of people — friends and loved ones, colleagues and strangers — flocked to much larger James Madison University on a sun-splashed morning, half-filling an 8,500-seat sports arena for more than two hours of prayer, eulogies and song, with a pair of flag-draped coffins set before a stage.
“The good guys can’t always win,” said one of Painter’s hunting and fishing buddies, J.R. Dodd, the police chief in Timberville, Va., 25 miles farther up the Shenandoah Valley from Bridgewater.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Referring to the 1,460 students at Bridgewater, where the two officers confronted a suspicious man on campus and wound up losing their lives, Dodd told the assembly, “Thanks to the service and bravery of John Painter and J.J. Jefferson, untold lives were saved that day.”
“I miss you, John,” Dodd said. “You were a true friend and a true hero.”
Painter, 55, a college police officer, and Jefferson, 48, a security officer on the campus, about 140 miles west of Washington, were known at Bridgewater as “the dynamic duo” for their commitment to keeping people safe and for their tight friendship. So close were the two that, a short time before they died together, Painter was best man at Jefferson’s wedding.
Story continues below advertisement
“John Painter and J.J. Jefferson were great men,” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said from the stage. “To their family members and those who loved them, we cannot know the full measure of your grief. Our hearts are broken for you.” The killings “shattered our commonwealth,” he added. “They knew it was a dangerous job, especially in these turbulent times, these times when we pray together every day for healing, for unity.”
Advertisement
Shortly before 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 1, authorities said, Painter and Jefferson were responding to a call about a suspicious man on the grounds of Bridgewater’s Memorial Hall. “After a brief interaction … the subject opened fire and shot both officers,” a Virginia State Police spokeswoman said. The alleged gunman, identified as a former Bridgewater student, Alexander Wyatt Campbell, 27, of Ashland, Va., has been charged with multiple murder counts and is being held in the Rockingham County Jail.
As small college community mourns, suspect held without bond in Bridgewater College officer killings
The officers died at the scene. Campbell, who suffered a minor gunshot wound, was later arrested after police said he waded onto an island in the nearby North River. Authorities said they recovered several guns. The motive for the shootings has yet to be publicly explained. Campbell has not entered pleas to the charges in court. His attorney has said he wants Campbell to undergo a mental competency evaluation.
Story continues below advertisement
“For anyone who thinks there are no heroes today … there are heroes,” Youngkin told the gathering in Atlantic Union Bank Center, before taps sounded, the coffin flags were tri-folded and the caskets borne from the arena. The heroes “are at Bridgewater College,” the governor said, meaning two men “willing to sacrifice everything in our common defense.”
Jefferson, a Marine Corps veteran, previously worked in security at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va.; Painter, who served in the Air Force, had been police chief in Grottoes, Va., near Bridgewater, where he worked for 18 years.
The impact of the shootings on other law enforcement officers could be seen in a procession of marked police cars from as far away as New Jersey, streaming into the arena parking lot Wednesday morning. By 9:30, more than an hour before the service began, a long line of mourners snaked toward the entrance, where a giant American flag hung from the towering ladders of two firetrucks.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
One of those waiting to get in, John Campbell, a 21-year-old Bridgewater student, said he knew both officers in passing through his job on a campus grounds crew. He marveled at the outpouring of love.
“It’s definitely well-deserved,” Campbell said. “I feel like over the past couple of years, law enforcement hasn’t been given enough credit for what they do. And people, especially in this community, are finally waking up and realizing exactly what they do. They put their lives on the line for us all, and that’s something we just can’t thank them enough for.”
Bridgewater College officers killed in shooting remembered for years of service, commitment to students
David Klein drove with his family from Mount Airy, Md., to support his daughter-in-law, Katcale Klein, a Bridgewater campus police officer who was close to Painter and Jefferson. He said Jefferson would occasionally visit Katcale Klein’s home and play with her children, who also are filled with grief. He said of his daughter-in-law, “She still breaks down and cries.”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
On stage, Painter’s grown daughter, Courtney Painter, recited a poem: “When I hear about a hero and the great things they have done/ it reminds me of my father, he is the greatest one.” Family members and friends reminisced, at once chuckling and fighting tears, often relating their escapades in the woods with Painter, who loved the outdoors. Ministers offered devotions and the wail of bagpipes echoed in the arena.
“He always told me in our many talks riding around in the truck, he said, ‘One of these days I’m going to go out in a gunfight.' He said, ‘That’s the way to go,'" recalled Painter’s friend Andy Campbell. “Well, just to let you know, you and J.J. won. Because all those children up there got to talk to their parents that night, and visa versa. For that, you are both heroes.”
Said the governor: “The question remains, how could this happen here and why would a loving God allow it? I don’t know the answers to these things.”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
As the service ended, a final dispatch call to Jefferson and Painter played in the arena, a last salute to the men before their coffins were carried away.
Jenne Klotz emerged from the service shaken. Her husband, Don Klotz, is a patrol officer for the city of Harrisonburg and was among the dozens of law enforcement officers who responded to the shootings. All of it — the gunfire, the helicopters hovering over the campus and the stories Wednesday of how well-loved both fallen officers were — hit close to home, she said.
“It’s a sickening, sickening feeling,” Klotz said. “After two of the worst years that this country has seen in our lifetimes, the grief is just palpable.”