When the call came on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 28, 2023 HPD officers Garrett Crumby and Albert Morin responded as officers do. A domestic violence call at Governor’s House apartments with a barricaded suspect. Eventually the suspect, Juan Robert Laws, was taken into custody but not before firing the shots that killed officer Crumby and put Morin in intensive care.
A candle light vigil for the officers was held at the Fallen Officers Memorial in front of Huntsville’s Police Department and Joint Jail on Wheeler Avenue on Friday evening March 31, 2023 when many dignitaries and community leaders spoke words of praise, compassion and encouragement for the officers, their families and the community.
On Sunday morning, April 2, 2023 the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Chaplain’s ministry was set up across the street from the city jail ready to offer counsel, encouragement and prayers for any of the law enforcement community, their families or public that might be looking for guidance in the difficult moments after loosing one of their comrades.
Crumby’s funeral service was held at Mayfair Church of Christ on Monday, April 3, 2023 after which he was transported to his hometown of Tuscaloosa for a graveside service and burial. The funeral procession that stretched for more than six miles passed by Huntsville’s notable Maple Hill Cemetery where another fallen officer, Billy Fred Clardy III, was buried in 2019 after being killed in the line of duty.
©2023 – Jim Casey
