Family, Friends & Fellow Officers Remember...

May GOD bless you and your family for your ultimate sacrifice to the security and safety of your community. You will always be in our thoughts and prayers.

C.O. D.HOWE
R.I. DEPT OF CORRECTIONS

February 6, 2006

In Valor there is Hope. I hope your passage into Heaven wa peaceful and prayer will sustain your family. Rest in Peace, Brother.

P.O. Chris Welby
Bridgeton, Mo

February 6, 2006

May God bless you and your family. Thank you Sir for your service and sacrifice.

Police Officer
LAPD

February 6, 2006

On behalf of the Sinton Police Department Sinton, Texas, I would like to express our deepest condolences to the family and fellow Officers of Jim Sell. Our mourning bands are in place. Rest in peace Officer Sell.

Sergeant S. Roush

Sergeant Scott Roush
Sinton Police Dept. Sinton, Texas

February 6, 2006

I never had the honor of meeting Officer Sell, but Im sure some day I will. Officer Sell is a true hero and will be missed by all of his fellow brother and sister officers. May he rest in peace.

Patrolman Timothy Mcpeck
Barnstable Police Department

February 6, 2006

God Bless your Officer Sell. You will never be forgotten!

Citizen
Michigan

February 6, 2006

God bless to the family, friends and co-workers of Officer Sell. Thank you for your service, RIP.

mjw643

February 6, 2006

Officer Sell is a true hero. As a Reserve Officer, he was volunteering his time to give back to his community and help make it a safer place for everyone.

Officer Sell will be remembered for making substantial, caring differences in the lives of so many. He will also be remembered for his graciousness, passion for helping others, and as a model for the rest of us.

My heart goes out to his family and the Gassville Police Department for this indescribable loss.

Reserve Officer S. Phillips, Retired
Yelm, WA

February 6, 2006

Our thoughts and prayers are with you, your family,fellow officers and friends. Rest in peace, Sir.

AZ Narc

February 6, 2006

On behalf of the men and women of the La Habra Police Department we send out thoughts and condolences to the Gassville Police Department and the family of Officer Sell. It doesn't matter where we work, when one of our brothers or sisters fall, we all feel the pain and the loss. Rest in peace Officer Sell. You will never be forgotten.

Sergeant Jeff Baylos
La Habra PD, California

February 6, 2006

May God be with Officer Sell's family, friends and co-workers. You are all in my prayers.

Denise Nichols - surviving spouse
Alabama State Trooper Brian K. Nichols EOW 2/17/2002

February 6, 2006

Your service will not be forgotten...

An Officer's Wife
Lyon County/EPD

February 6, 2006

THANKS FOR YOUR ULTIMATE SACRIFICE.

OFC. CARL DURBIN #306
PORT ST LUCIE PD.

February 6, 2006

God bless brother, you will never be forgotten.

PTL. PAUL M. PATRIARCA
NEWTON POLICE DEPARTMENT

February 6, 2006

My sincerest sympathy to the family and friends of Officer Jim Sell as well as to the Gassville Police Department. Rest in peace Officer Sell, you are gone but will not be forgotten...

Dispatcher Sue Rusch
Punta Gorda PD, Punta Gorda FL

February 6, 2006

I am deeply saddened that Off. Sell had to pay the highest price for such a heinous crime. Although many of us may have never met him, we all do understand his passion and commitment to job he must have had. I just wish the path of destruction that this coward Robida was traveling, could have ended much sooner than it had, and in a less chaotic fasion. My family and I send our deepest condolences to the Sell family and to the Arkansas law enforcement family. May Officer sell now rest in peace, knowing that we all appreciate the service and the sacrifice that he has made for us.

Paul Bell Communications Operator
Tiverton, RI Police

February 6, 2006

You, your family, your department and the community you served are in my prayers.

Ofc. S.L. Coffman #15174
California Highway Patrol

February 6, 2006

... But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. - 1 Corinthians 15:57-58.

May God bless and encourage Officer Sell's family, friends, and fellow officers.

I.C.E. Special Agent

February 6, 2006

Officer Sell,
Thank you for your service to this country, Its Officers like yourself that paved the way for younger Officers like myself. Rest easy Sir you will always be in my prayers.

Police Officer
Boston School Police

February 6, 2006

REST WELL OLD FRIEND I KNEW YOU WELL

capt.jack ray retired
mississippi co. sheriffs office ar.

February 6, 2006

Rest In Peace Sir

Officer Eric Newbury
California Highway Patrol

February 6, 2006

Officer Sell's devotion to law enforcement helped his fellow brothers take a monster off of the streets. God bless Captian Sell and his family. RIP brother,

Officer Carl Snellings Jr
Belton,TX police Department

Patrol Officer
Belton Police department

February 6, 2006

My thoughts and prayers are with your family. Rest easy brother. God Bless

Officer
St. Louis

February 6, 2006

God Bless The Family!

Walter Moore
Keo Fire Department

February 6, 2006

PRIDE INTEGIRTY & GUTS !

Some of you may know my face, but not my name. Most of you have seen me around the city and some have even met me, but not always under the best of circumstances. Some of you have even spoken to me on the phone, when you called me while I was working.

Most of you have an opinion on how my job should be done, but would never take my job if it was the last one on earth. And some of you who don’t even know me, hate me because of my job. But when I go to my job, I go to make a difference and so I can fight what everyone else fears.

When most would be running away from danger, my job requires me to run towards it. I do this in the hopes of making a difference for someone else I don’t even know. Most people say I make too much money, because my pay is published in the newspaper. But don’t think twice about hearing about another sports player sign a 20 million dollar contract for 6 months a year of playing a “game.”

Since my job’s base pay isn’t the best I must work extra to pay the bills. Including working extra shifts, on holidays and pick up side work at construction sites as well on my days off, most still complain thinking I am greedy, but don’t they realize that I to must pay taxes, have a mortgage car payments and kids in collage as well?

Don’t they understand that I am not paid for what I do, but for what I am willing to do for them? After all how can you properly compensate someone to risk their own life and face danger everyday they go to work?

And when I go to work I am punched, kicked, spit on and called every name in the book for doing my job. And every night I leave my house to go to work I realize I may not come back home in the morning. Because when I go to work I can be stabbed, shot, drown, fall, be electrocuted, or die in a car accident rushing to help you.

My job also requires me to carry special “tools” to help me do my job. Sometimes even while doing my job I have to defend myself from someone attacking me. Although, the newspapers will report to you that I “beat someone down”, and not that I defended myself from an attack.

While at work I must also carry a gun to protect you, but should I have to use it, the media reports to you that I “gunned someone down” or that I “shot and killed” somebody, not that I defended myself. Don’t they realize that I shoot to live and never to kill?

Also when I go to work I wrap a protective vest around me to help keep me safe through my shift. I use this vest so that I will be allowed to live to the end of my work day. And hope and pray that should something bad happen that this vest helps keep me alive so that I will be allowed to see my children grow.

When I go to my job, I will see more pain, sorrow, agony, death and destruction in one month than most of you will see in an entire lifetime.


And to the ones who don’t know me, I unforunetly will meet most of you at the worst times in your life. You often will call me to come help you out with a problem. But if you have a really big problem you can get me at a special 3 digit number and me and my coworkers will race to your house, just to help you no questions asked. All you have to do is call and we will be there for you, no matter what time, day, night or holiday, rain shine or blizzard.

Sometimes my job also requires me to deliver lectures, babies and even bad news. I am also the one required to ring your doorbell in the middle of the night, swallow hard and advise you that a loved one will not be coming home tonight, then I spend the rest of my shift wondering why I ever took such a job.

Some people even refer to me as a “pig,” but when I hear that word called to me or one of my coworkers I think of Pride, Integrity and Guts, which everyone in my profession needs to do this job.

Me and my coworkers must be able to have muscles of steel, have a sense of humor and put ourselves into dangerous situations and face danger head on all in a days work.

We must act in a second and make a decision in the blink of an eye, and spend the rest of our life hoping we made the right choice in that split second. If not we can be arrested and charged with breaking a law, be sued for violating someone’s rights, or end up with even a worse fate.

My job requires me to take an oath to be their and to risk my life to protect you. And it is an oath that me and my fellow coworkers have taken and is one that we will never break.

What, you ask is my job? I am your local police officer. And what do I ask in return of doing all this and risking my life for you? Nothing at all, because it is my job and my hope of being the one who makes the difference.


- Paul Cotter, Lynn Mass

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This article was written by me for a local newspaper to remember our fallen brother and sisters during national police week.

it was later re-published in 4 more newspapers and one national police magazine.

Officer Sell, sir you are in my thoughts and prayers. God bless you!

Ofc. Paul Cotter
Lynn (MA) PD

February 6, 2006