nothin 350 Mourn Officer “E.J.” | New Haven Independent

350 Mourn Officer E.J.”

Allan Appel Photo

2013 academy class members serve as pall bearers.

Officer Douglas.

New Haven police brass and white-gloved young officers gave one final salute to one of their own: Officer Edward C. Douglas, Jr., celebrated as an exemplary officer and an equally exemplary human being whose quietly charismatic presence made everyone feel better about themselves.

That rare combination of qualities was at the emotional heart of the funeral for Douglas, a New Haven police officer killed in a motorcycle accident on May 27 while vacationing in South Carolina. The service for the man affectionately known as E.J. drew 350 mourners to Trinity Temple at Dixwell Avenue and Henry Street on a rainy, overcast Monday morning.

Douglas, a 31-year-old New Haven native who had been an athletic stand-out at Hillhouse High School, had most recently been assigned to the narcotics unit. The death of someone so young, so loved, and so valued as officer and friend hit the department hard, reported police spokesperson Officer David Hartman. He described a great emptiness” that swept the department.

Members of the Presidents Motor Cycle Club salute Douglas.

As Douglas’s open white casket, surrounded by large bouquets of flowers, stood available for viewing in the nave of the church and hundreds lined up to pay their respects, you could still very much feel that emptiness.

Members of Douglas’s academy class flanked the rows of the pews on two sides of the sanctuary in a silent guard of honor as the ceremonies began. 

Just before they ended and the casket was carried out for transportation and burial, Officer Christopher Acosta asked everyone in the sanctuary to join in the academy class’s shout one last time in honor of their departed colleague.

In between those moving moments, there were hymns of praise and words of comfort offered by, among others, Mayor Toni Harp, Police Chief Anthony Campbell, and Sgt. Shafiq Abdussabur, who was Douglas’s last commanding officer in the Newhallville/East Rock/Cedar Hill district.

In addition to a stellar and rising police career, Douglas was known in the community for his athletic prowess — especially as a baseball shortstop, beginning as a kid in the Pop Smith Leagues, and through his varsity play at Hillhouse High School.

He was also a popular member between 2006 and 2009 of the Presidents Motorcycle Club of New Haven and Bridgeport. Representatives of those groups — coaches and black-vested riding buddies — were in attendance in large numbers, many teary-eyed.

Police Capt. Patricia Helliger, Sgt. Charlette Barham, and Capt. Anthony Duff at the funeral.

An entire city is shaken,” Mayor Harp declared

His smile, his stride, his cool stride walk … all his goodness remain with us,” said Abdussabur.

A lifetime friend, James Lewis, who is also the business manager of the Presidents Motorcycle Club, said he had accompanied Douglas to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for a motorcycle weekend.

That’s where the the early-morning motorcycle accident occurred and took the officer’s life.

Douglas’s club nickname was Herc” as in Hercules because as soon as Douglas had discovered the gym, he became a muscled guy, but one who expressed himself with the quiet strength of optimism and smiles.

He was always helping people. He had the character to be a cop. He greeted people with grace and compassion. He always made you feel happy around him. That was a gift. I’m a little less happy today,” Lewis added.

Douglas laid down his colors,” as the club term has it, when he became a police officer, said club President Leroy Pearson. That’s because an officer in training is not supposed to have other affiliations, he said.

He was really good riding a bike. He did his wheelies. He was mild-mannered. It was a loss when he had to lay his colors down to become a cop,” Pearson said.

Presidents Motorcycle Club business manager Lewis, at right in photo.

Because Douglas was still a member in good standing, at least 40 of the club’s 90 or so members were in attendance at the funeral and provided a gauntlet, on the steps of the church, as family and other mourners entered.

You would think an officer who loved motorcycles so much would want to become a motorcycle cop. But that wasn’t the case with Edward Douglas.

Campbell said Douglas was eager to learn, most recently expressing an interest in joining the department’s canine unit.

He set the example of what it means to be a phenomenal police officer and a good man. If I can recruit another 400 Edward Douglases, man, New Haven would have no problems,” said Campbell.

Bishop Lee A. Haynes of the Last Day Healing & Deliverance Church in Spartanburg, S.C., came up to New Haven to preside over the services. After he concluded, Douglas was transported with a motorcycle police escort to Evergreen Cemetery for burial.

The casket is followed by Douglas’s family, led by mother Gloria Lester, middle.

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