Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Thank You And Good Luck, Vidal!


As many of my regular readers know, I used to work at the House of Correction. After going through the probationary period, I applied and was accepted into the Special Management Team (SMT), which was a dorm that held inmates that suffered from a serious mental illness.

One of the many admirable people that I had the pleasure and honor to serve with was SMT Correctional Officer Vidal Colon. Unfortunately, I only served with him for a very short time, as he was soon to become a member of the Milwaukee Police Department.

Last year, Milwaukee Police Officer Vidal Colon, showed the world that he is truly one of Milwaukee's finest:
The officer responded to a domestic disturbance complaint Saturday night. The suspect ran. The officer chased. According to the police chief, the confrontation ended in moments in a blast of gunfire.

Fresh from a spring vacation, Milwaukee's police chief took time out Monday morning to survey the scene of Saturday's shootout.

"It's really quite startling to look at it first hand and see what an extraordinarily brave act our officer committed and the extraordinarily intimate surroundings in which this occurred," Milwaukee police Chief Ed Flynn said.

Flynn said Officer Vidal Colon was chasing the suspect through a gangway when the 45-year-old man opened fire."The officer was wounded and went down. (He) continued to exchange fire with a suspect who went down, and both were on the ground shooting at each other before this gun battle ended. Mercifully, without the loss of our officer's life," Flynn said.

The officer shot the suspect five times. The suspect hit Colon twice in the legs and once in the stomach. The officer wasn't wearing a bullet-proof vest. They're not required to.

"I spoke to him yesterday (Sunday)and he had already gotten the stern lecture from his lovely wife, Tina, that he's never leaving the house again for the rest of his career without his body armor on. He did not have it on," Flynn said.

Colon is home recovering. His wife told WISN 12 News reporter Colleen Henry he has no comment.
The reason I'm bringing it up now, a year after the fact, is that I just learned tonight that Vidal is one of the eight finalists for America's Most Wanted 2010 All-Stars.

According to the AMW website, voting for the grand winner is supposed to start today, but apparently they haven't set up the program yet. I will update this when I find out how to vote.

But I would still like to thank Vidal Colon for his service and sacrifice for the betterment of the community, and wish him the best of luck in the contest.

3 comments:

  1. Nice articleand he is very lucky he is not dead. Makes you wonder why it is not mandatory to have a vest on.
    We had a similar shooting here with some worse results. The thug was shot dead after he severely wonded an officer in the leg and cut an artery.
    BTW, we have something in common- I worked in a similar unit at Mendota- in the unit where the worst of the worst were kept. Very interesting job.

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  2. thanks for putting this on your blog. Vidal was one of my cops and I rode with him to the hospital that day. I really hope he wins this thing!!!! BTW his vest wouldn't have mattered all off the shots were below the vest line, one even went through his duty belt. Thanks again and stay safe

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  3. Thank you, for your kind words. Please make sure to pass the word and have all of Milwaukee's finest support this hero.

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