MILWAUKEE — The death of Milwaukee Police Officer Peter Jerving leaves many in the Milwaukee community overcome with sadness as his family deals with ultimate grief.
A Milwaukee mother knows that grief all too well after her son was killed in the line of duty in 1996. Glennie Pickett says the pain hasn’t gone away nearly 30 years later.
Glennie’s favorite piece of art is a painting of her son Wendolyn Odell Tanner. It hangs on her living room wall providing a constant reminder of the life Odell lived, and how he made the ultimate sacrifice at just 29 years old.
"This morning I said I can't go in there, I can't go in there and think about it, but I will never take it down,” Glennie said. “It meant so much to me."
Glennie says learning of another Milwaukee police officer losing his life in a nearly identical situation takes her back to her darkest day.
"I woke up at about 4 o'clock and they were talking about it and I just said to myself, 'please don't let it be,'” Glennie said. “I can feel that pain. I know what his family’s going through. I know what they have to go through. That's a pain that you can't even explain."
Glennie says her son Odell went straight into the Army out of high school before returning to his hometown of Milwaukee to serve on the Milwaukee Police Department.
"I thought, he went over there and came back here and lost his life,” Glennie said.
That fateful day came on September 7, 1996. Odell, known as Officer Tanner on the job, was trying to arrest a man wanted on a warrant. When the suspect took off, Odell ran after him. The suspect fired several shots during the foot chase. One of those bullets killed Odell just months before his daughter was born.
"It just tears at your heart,” Glennie said.
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Glennie remembers the moment two officers showed up at her front door to share the tragic news and take her to the hospital.
"When I got in the patrol wagon, they put the siren on. They didn't turn it off until we got to Froedtert,” she said. “I knew my baby was gone. I knew he was gone."
As yet another family starts that grieving process, Glennie says not an hour goes by without feeling that pain decades later.
"I would like to just say to the family, yes, it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard. You can't get around it. You're going to hurt, you're going to cry, you're going to do all of that,” she said.
Glennie urges people to bring flowers and sympathy cards to Milwaukee Police District 4 for the officer’s family. She says similar small acts of kindness brought her family some peace during their most difficult days.
