The widow of retired St. Louis police officer David Dorn delivered an emotional speech at the Republican National Convention, recounting the moment she was told about her husband’s death.
“The chief of police was standing outside. I wondered why Dave had not answered the door. It wasn’t uncommon for him to be up watching TV at this time. I called out to him several times. There was no reply. He just wasn’t there,” Ann Dorn said. “I let in the chief, and fighting back tears, he said the words every officer’s spouse dreads.”
David Dorn, 77, was killed in St. Louis in June when looting and rioting spread across the city. The retired police captain, a 38-year veteran of the St. Louis Police Department, was found on the sidewalk outside of a pawnshop owned by his friend. He had visited the store to investigate the activation of an alarm amid the looting and violence in St. Louis in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
Ann Dorn said that David Dorn’s own grandson watched his grandfather die during a Facebook livestream, “not realizing he was watching his own grandfather dying on the sidewalk.”
“As I slept, looters were ransacking the shop. They shot and killed David in cold blood and then livestreamed his execution and last moments on Earth,” she said.
David Dorn’s widow said she relives the “horror” of her husband’s death every day. She hoped her speech would shake America from the “nightmare we are witnessing in our cities” and “bring about positive, peaceful change.”
“How did we get to this point where so many people are callous and indifferent towards human life?” she asked. ”This isn’t a video game where you and commit mayhem and hit reset and bring all the characters back to life. Dave is never, never coming back to me.”
Ann Dorn offered a rebuke of the protests and riots gripping the United States, praising President Trump’s offer of federal assistance.
“Violence and destruction are not legitimate forms of protest. They don’t safeguard black lives. They only destroy them,” she argued. “President Trump understands this, has offered federal help to help restore order in our communities. In a time when police departments are short of manpower, we need that help. We should accept that help.”
