The following is excerpted from the URL http://www.yesteryear.clunette.com/150yearspart4.html:
Dec. 1, 1987 - Seven criminal charges, including attempted murder, are being filed against an Ohio man who drove through a police roadblock and critically injured a Warsaw police officer.. Warsaw police Sgt. Fred Heady, critically injured in the accident on Thanksgiving Day, remains in critical but stable condition at Parkview Hospital, Fort Wayne. Heady received massive head injuries and severe lower leg and knee injuries.
Heady, 32, is a 10-year veteran of the Warsaw department. Hospital officials said Heady is still in a coma and doctors are monitoring the swelling in his brain.
As a citizen of this caring community, I want to publicly thank Officer Heady and his family for the supreme sacrifice he made in protecting us on Thanksgiving Day, 1987. I recall following your story and praying for your recovery. I am very thankful that you lived to see your family again and have the ability to communicate. I am sorry that you feel abandoned by us. Twelve hundred dollars a month does seem like a tremendous amount of money to expect from a disabled officer and his family.
As yet another Sept. 11 approaches, we will hold parades and display signs honoring our dedicated individuals in public service. I urge us as a community to find ways to put those kind words into practice. We do not want our public servants burdened with the worry of who will care for them and their families should they be called on to make similar sacrifices.
Officer Heady may be alive to ask for help and able to speak to us, but that makes him no less deserving of honor and gratitude for giving up his life, as he knew it, in order to protect us. How many are willing to work on a holiday, let alone sacrifice themselves for the good of their community? Let us honor their sacrifice and provide for them and their families.
