Officer Henry Lee Jones

My father, H. D. Barrett, Sr., retired from the Atlanta Police Force after 30 years. During the 1970's, he worked the Civic Center detail, with several Atlanta police officers, all of them became like family, as often happens in "Police Fraternities". One of those family members was Officer Henry Jones. Being a big daddy's girl, and with my father working so many hours, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a lot of time after school at the Civic Center working a part time job in the concessions and as an usher. Like all of my fathers "partners", I got to know officer Henry, and remember him as always being so helpful and polite to everyone, and I mean everyone! But what I remember more than anything was how proud he was of his family. He talked of his mother and wife often, but mostly of his young son. I can't remember a time that I saw him that he didn't have something to say about him. When officer Henry was killed it really affected me. He was the first police officer that I knew personally that was killed in the line of duty. I kept thinking, if I'm this upset about his death, I can't begin to imagine what his family is going through, especially his son. His little boy that he loved so much was now going to have to grow up without this amazing father. I thought of officer Henry often through the years and wondered about his son and what kind of life he had after his father's death. My father retired after 30 years on the force, but unfortunately died within weeks of his retirement. But I still consider my family and me very fortunate that he was not taken from us so suddenly and tragically at the hands of a criminal, like officer Henry and all police officers killed in the line of duty!

Jennifer Barrett
Daughter of retired Atlanta Police officer

December 14, 2017