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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2017)
6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2017 Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Sgt. Jason Goodding’s memorial service last year at the Seaside Civic and Convention Center. Scores of law enforcement officers and state and community people attended. Chief Ham: ‘Offi cers did what they were trained to do’ Continued from Page 1A Q: What were you feeling at that time? A: It was a certain amount of disbelief. Very scared, very much concerned for David- son. My fi rst contact was actually with Offi cer David- son to try to make sure he knew we were there for him. Q: He hadn’t been struck? A: No. That’s when I started to make my way over and saw the many medics attending to Jason. Q: You had Ferry there, too. A: Yes. Q: Were you angry? A: Well, you know, that’s one of those things. Over this whole thing … I haven’t been angry. My biggest con- cern was for my friend and co-worker Jason. Q: Did you go to the hospital? A: Once he got transported, I went and picked up Amy (Goodding) and the kids and brought them to the hospital. Q: Who made that call? A: I did. Q: What did you say? A: What do you say? I just let her know that there had been … that Jason had been hurt and we needed to get to the hospital. Trying to do it quietly without the girls hear- ing exactly what was going on but … just brought them to the hospital. Q: What was Amy’s reaction? A: Again concerned, scared, kept her composure pretty well. We didn’t know the severity — I didn’t even know the severity of it. I knew they were working on him. I knew it was very serious, but we didn’t know at that point he had passed away. Q: How did you react when you learned of his death? A: It hit very close to home. We were all grieving and it was all very raw — and is to this day, to be quite hon- est with you. I was close fam- ily friends with the Gooddings and still am, so there was a very personal side to this. It was very diffi cult to try to separate. Q: Did you sleep that night? Did you go home? A: I don’t think I slept. I went home and probably the Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Seaside Police Chief Dave Ham points to a donated plaque in memory of fallen Seaside Police Sgt. Jason Goodding that hangs on a wall at the station. Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Seaside Police Chief Dave Ham looks at a wall full of gifts from the community in remem- brance of Sgt. Jason Goodding at the Seaside Police Station. next morning laid down for a couple of hours, but it was well into the next morning. Q: And what was hap- pening overnight? A: It’s hard to say or recall. Those next 12 hours were very … I don’t know how to really even answer that one. It’s just, to a certain degree things kind of stopped. We had offi cers from other agencies that were fi lling in — taking our calls for service, and it’s just … Q: Did you call a meeting? A: We did. We had a department meeting within a couple of days where spouses were invited. It was a time to get everybody together and give them the rundown of everything that we knew up to that point, whether it was the criminal investigation, what was happening with our shifts, what we’re responsible for. It was a face-to-face time for them to console each other and know the city was with us, and we had the support of really anybody whether we reached out to them or they reached out to us. Q: Were you surprised by the avalanche of support that came from the country? A: To a certain degree, yes. The community support, and I mean Clatsop County, Seaside — it doesn’t surprise me, but it was overwhelming to see it. I’ve got a box right here fi lled with cards, letters, trin- kets, notes. It is from families, nationally and even interna- tionally who have no reason to know we’re on the map. It is from families who have lost offi cers before. It is from agencies that have never lost an offi cer in the line-of-duty; it is from agencies that have lost offi cers in the line-of-duty. It is amazing how much has come in, the overwhelm- ing support that I didn’t really expect in a situation like this. Q: What has this meant for you as a department? A: I think as a department it’s just really nice to see that so many people are out there. You’re supported; you’re loved. For me it has been very emotional, grieving a co-worker, grieving a very close personal friend. And so the thing about coming up on the one-year anniversary for this interview, it dredges up so many emotions. Everybody here has been affected by that. We’re very close knit and it’s been very emotional to say the least. Q: Let me shift gears here. In terms of policing, did this provide any lessons? A: Yes. From the time offi - cers come on they’re taught a sense of offi cer safety. You’re taught certain skills and ways to handle people, to talk to people and to ask for cer- tain things that may include “we need to see your hands.” Unfortunately hands are what kill people oftentimes in our line of work and in this par- ticular case, the lesson reaf- fi rmed and reinforced just that. The offi cers did what they were trained to do. They did what they could do to keep this safe for everyone. It’s just an example of even when you do the right thing, bad things can still happen. Q: How can we prevent this kind of incident from happening again? A: In this particular situ- ation and with this murder- er’s background, I think he should have been in custody and not released from previ- ous charges leaving him to be on the streets to make his decisions that led to the death of and the murder of Sgt. Goodding. Q: How are Amy and her daughters doing now? A: They are doing pretty good. They seem to be adjust- ing and they’re very resilient. They have good family sup- port. The girls are doing well in school. Amy is doing well, as far as I can tell. Q: Sherwood, where Jason Goodding attended high school, named a fi eld 20 TH A NNUAL D INNER & A UCTION K NAPPA S CHOOLS F OUNDATION Doors open at 4 pm Dinner at 6 pm Knappa High School Gym Prime Rib or Salmon Dinner Silent & Live Auctions Raffl es and the Best of “Live” Drawing To donate contact Blake Gerttula 503-338-8014 Tickets may be purchased at Knappa High School or Teevin Bros. Land & Timber in Knappa This Advertisement was sponsored by THE LOGGER RESTAURANT after him. What are some of the highlights of the tributes that have come in? A: One of the things we’re all very proud of is the local Seaside High School scholar- ship program that got started up in Jason’s name. That was kicked off last June. There’s a benefi t concert coming up on the 11th at the Elks Lodge and their funds are going toward the Oregon Fallen Badge Foundation. On May 2, Offi cer Davidson, Sgt. Nof- ield and myself will be repre- senting the department at the Oregon Fallen Law Enforce- ment Memorial Ceremony in Salem. Then we’ll be going to Washington, D.C., for National Police Week the week of May 15. This community is very good about donating to many different things and this has been no different, and at the very least, if anything goes out from my lips, it is a thank you to them, to this community. This community is amazing. Q: Anything else you want to add? A: The tone of the depart- ment is positive, people are upbeat. We had some vacan- cies in this last year and we’re settling down. We’ve got bod- ies hired, but we’re still wait- ing for them to get through the police academies and trained. We’re starting to get to the point where we can keep our head above water, so to speak. From what I can tell the morale of the department is good and we’re excited about the future. We just never want to forget our friend. Westport Art Festival 20 th Anniver sar y February 11th Come Celebrate With Us Our Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Seaside Police Chief Dave Ham hugs Sgt. Jason Good- ding’s wife, Amy, at Goodding’s memorial service last year. 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