James Letts, a 20-year veteran of the department, was honored tonight by the Trenton Policemen's Benevolent Association as the organization's Officer of the Year.
Trenton Detectives James Letts and Edgar Rios are in the middle of their own personal awards season eight months after the veteran officers were shot in the line of duty while investigating a domestic violence case.
Letts, a 20-year veteran of the department, was honored tonight by the Trenton Policemen’s Benevolent Association as the organization’s Officer of the Year. Rios, who won the award in 2007 was ineligible to receive it again, but got an honorable mention this evening.
“It’s been an extremely exciting time,” Letts said before the awards dinner at The Stone Terrace by John Henry’s in Hamilton tonight.
It was the third time Letts had been recognized this year for his professionalism and the sacrifice imposed upon him by the shooting, but it won’t be the last as he and Rios prepare to head to the White House in two weeks for the national “Top Cops” honor.
The Officer of the Year award is “the most prestigious award a police officer in the Trenton Police Department can receive,” said George Dzurkoc, president of the Trenton Policemen’s Benevolent Association.
The award carries great meaning for officers because the recipient is chosen by his peers at the city police department, said Drew Astbury, the association’s state delegate. Both Dzurkoc and Astbury said that the award is about Letts’ service record as well as last summer’s shooting.
“He earned this not only through his career of 20 years,” Dzurkoc said. “But he had a call to duty on August 15.”
The day prior to the shooting, Trenton man Eric McNeil allegedly beat his girlfriend Yama Blue and stabbed her puppy to death. The following day, Rios and Letts were returning with Blue to the Hobart Avenue home to collect evidence. Mercer County Sheriff’s Officer William Miller accompanied them to photograph the crime scene.
Just after the detectives exited their vehicle, McNeil appeared from the house and started shooting. McNeil shot Rios in the abdomen, seriously wounding him, and hit Letts twice before the officers killed McNeil with return fire.
Both Rios and Letts were rushed to the hospital. Letts was in stable condition and released the next day, but Rios was placed in a medically induced coma, to stabilize his body before his condition improved and he returned to consciousness.
Letts, 46, needed physical therapy, and had to make sure he had full range of motion in his shoulder before returning to work early last month. Rios, 54, who is one of the department’s longest-serving and highest-regarded officers, has not yet made it back.
The impact of the shooting on the department was significant, Dzurkoc said, and tonight’s awards dinner was an opportunity to reflect on that.
Letts tends to avoid the spotlight but has gotten little else of late.
Among the multiple recog-nitions the pair of detectives have received, they were also honored — along with Miller, — by the prosecutor’s offices from Mercer, Camden, Glou-cester and Salem counties with the victim’s service award in early April and again last Saturday as the Trenton PAL of the Year award winners at the Police Athletic League’s annual dinner.
They are not done yet, however, because in less than a month they will travel to Washington, D.C., to receive recognition on the national stage.
Letts and Rios are going to the White House May 12, where along with officers from nine other states they will get the Top Cops award from the National Association of Police Organizations. This annual ceremony has included remarks from President Barack Obama in the past.
Contact Brendan McGrath at (609) 989-5731 or bmcgrath@njtimes.com.
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