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North Carolina Officers Feel Sting of Injured Comrade

By Jennifer Frew | The News Herald

Published: December 14, 2007

Few feel the pain more than law enforcement officers when one of their own goes down.

Burke County has a close-knit law enforcement community and this week is reeling after the shooting of Martin Lawing.

Lawing, 31, is an investigator with the Burke County Sheriff's Office and was critically wounded Tuesday during a police standoff with a Burke County woman.

Police say Eva Joyce Nelson, 61, of Suburban Drive off Enola Road, shot Lawing in the neck.

Police surrounded her residence after Nelson refused involuntary commitment orders and refused to come out of her home.

Lawing was airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte on Tuesday night, and was in critical but stable condition at last report.

Valdese Police Chief John Suttle has known Lawing for years, as do most of the staff members in his department.

He said the shooting is a "good example of a police officer protecting the public. When an officer is shot, he's taking the bullet for those he's protecting."

Suttle said the Valdese Police department will do anything it can to help Lawing and his family, which includes a wife and 2-year-old daughter.

Capt. Billy Bradshaw with the Morganton Department of Public Safety said around his agency, "Emotions are high, because a fellow officer has been shot."

Lawing is a member of the Burke County Narcotics Task Force and worked with Public Safety on a daily basis. Bradshaw says the city officers are supporting him "100 percent."

In Drexel, Police Chief Mike Swink knows what it's like to have an officer shot at.

"Everybody's sad and depressed around here," says Swink of the shooting.

His department felt the support of the extended law enforcement family in the past for one of it's own officers, and now Drexel is returning that support.

Four of its five officers were on scene Tuesday and Wednesday as police waited for the standoff to end.

Lt. Alex Cobb with the task force said there were about 20 officers from various federal, state and local agencies in and out of Burke County, at the hospital in Charlotte throughout the day Wednesday supporting Lawing and his family.