Police officer buys hungry boy food moments before being fatally shot

On August 7, 2011, San Diego Police Department’s Officer Jeremy Henwood was mortally wounded by a gunman in City Heights. Before being killed, the officer had served in the Marine Corps.

The last person to see the officer alive was Daveon Scott who’d asked him for money at a McDonald’s restaurant on Fairmount Avenue. The officer had bought Scott the cookies he wanted instead.

Officer Jeremy Henwood, 36, was caught on surveillance cameras buying, Daveon Scott, then-13, cookies at a McDonald’s just before he died. The boy had asked for 10 cents because he was short.

Instead, the officer bought him the cookies he wanted and the two spoke a little. Henwood asked Scott what he wanted to do when he grew up.

For more on this story go to our Twitter account @amomama_usa. The boy told him he wanted to be an NBA player.

Henwood advised him to work hard and left. As he was pulling away from the traffic lights Dejon Marquee White, 23, pulled up alongside him in a car and shot him.

White had written a two-page suicide note before going out driving in his car. Henwood was fatally wounded and died later at the hospital.

Police later cornered White, a shootout occurred outside his City Heights apartment and the suspect was killed. A motive could not be determined in Henwood’s senseless murder.

Three years after his shooting, fellow officers gathered for a memorial ceremony at the Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park. A fundraiser was held throughout the day at the same McDonald’s where the officer met Scott.

Scott had this to say about meeting Henwood:

“It changed my perspective on policemen. I used to not like policemen. Now I don’t think they’re bad. We need them – without officers it would be chaos in City Heights. It would be chaos everywhere.”

He recalled how he’d felt when he found out the officer had died:

“I couldn’t believe it. I’m sad he had to go. I know he’s looking down on me right now, shaking his head like, ‘You’re a good kid, man.’”

In September, officers Cpl. Zach Moak, 31, and Patrolman James White, 35, were responding to a call about shots fired around 5 a.m. in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Marquis Aaron Flowers, 25, was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the officers who were both killed.

The suspect was held in custody at a hospital in Jackson.