Ten Clinton residents have been selected to serve on the Fallen Heroes Committee, a group approved by Mayor Lew Starling and the City Council in response to a recent request to name the Faircloth Freeway Bridge in honor of late police officer Donald Tucker.

“I am proud to announce the city’s Fallen Heroes Ad Hoc Special Committee,” Starling stated in a press release. “On Oct. 9, I penned a letter to Mayor Pro Tem Marcus Becton proposing the appointment of a 10-member ad hoc special committee charged with the task of reviewing and establishing policies and procedures for how to best honor our community’s fallen heroes.”

At the November City Council meeting, the mayor asked for the City Council’s input on who should serve on the committee. He spent the last few weeks reviewing and considering the recommendations.

“I would like to thank the City Council for their input, and I thank the following citizens for graciously agreeing to serve on this important committee: Dee Bryant, Charles Boykin, Gloria Edwards, Jimmie Lewis, Sherry Matthews, Matthew Pearson, Sheriff’s Capt. Eric Pope, Highway Patrol First Sgt. Bryan Smith, Delynn Solice and Anthony Worley,” the mayor stated. “The city has assembled an accomplished group to explore how our community can continue honoring our police, fire and medical first responders and I look forward to their recommendations.”

The naming issue began when Terry Lee of Performance Automotive, Chris Sessoms from Helping Hands and Reggie Tucker, brother of Donald Tucker, a fallen Clinton police officer, all came forward with the idea of naming the under-construction Faircloth Freeway bridge after Donald Tucker, to honor his memory.

Reggie Tucker has taken issue with the appointment of a committee.

“I would love for the mayor to answer one question for me,” Reggie Tucker stated in a telephone interview this week. “If we would not have suggested naming that bridge after Donald, what was the city going to do to honor Donald? Also, I don’t think it’s right that Sherry Matthews is on the committee being that she is a Sampson Independent writer or editor, whatever they want to call her. It’s like he’s picked a few of his people that he knows that will not pass it. So, now it’s all up to him.”

Matthews has not been editor of The Sampson Independent for nearly two years. She is the general manager.

Reggie Tucker believes that since the mayor handpicked all of the committee members, they will all be biased. He believes a few of the members will want to name the bridge after his brother, but others will not.

“He hasn’t let anyone know his strategy,” Reggie commented. “You can say that you love the Tucker family all of the time but your actions are really not showing it. They’re just showing what he wants.”

According to Starling, the Council has the last say but he will adhere or listen to the recommendation of the committee on how the bridge naming should be handled. The committee will decide what to do about the bridge and what the procedure should be.

“I think it’s a worthwhile committee,” Bryant stated. “I think that we tend to ignore or forget those who have served and have fallen. When we think about fallen heroes, we always think about the military; we never think about the local people, like the police, and the fire department, and the sheriff’s department and the EMS team that work so diligently with us. So, it’s a worthwhile committee and I’m honored to be asked to serve on it.”

According to Edwards, the committee will get together in January and she is excited to serve. She said she will do everything that she possibly can to assist with the task.

Smith said he felt the committee was a great way to allow the community to have a voice.

“I feel this a great way to have the community involved in developing guidelines on how first responders should be recognized if they are, unfortunately, killed in the line of duty — hopefully to establish guidelines that mirror those set out by the Federal Safety Officers Benefits Act,” Smith noted.

According to the committee proposal, the City Council would work closely with the N.C. Department of Transportation and the city attorney to ensure that the city is following proper guidelines and protocols, Starling noted. The bridge will not be complete until 2022, so the mayor said he wants to be certain the process is fair, open and transparent.

“We’re so excited,” the mayor commented. “This really is a blue ribbon type committee. It’s the cream of the crop, a very, very wide experience around the city. Everyone was appointed with a particular reason because of their background. We have sheriff officials, fire officials, and then community activists, business leaders. It’s just a wonderful committee and no one turned us down. Everyone was eager to get in and come up with some recommendations to honor those fallen public servants. I’m sure the citizens will be pleased with what they do.”

In 1990, Donald Tucker joined the Clinton Police Department as a uniformed officer and assisted the Interagency Drug Enforcement unit. While with the department, he volunteered his time speaking with young people, warning them about drugs. Later, in 1991, he volunteered with Carteret County as an undercover officer for two months.

On Nov. 14, 1991, Donald Tucker, “on loan” to Carteret County from the Clinton Police Department, was killed when he was ambushed during an undercover narcotics investigation. He was making his last purchase as part of an undercover drug operation with the Carteret multi-agency task force when he was robbed and murdered.

A Midway High School graduate, Donald Tucker was a one-year veteran of the Clinton Police Department and just two weeks shy of his 23rd birthday when he was killed. As a tribute, his badge number, 332, has been retired and a monument stands in front of the Clinton Police Department in his memory.

Brendaly Vega Davis can be reached at 910-592-8137 ext. 2588.