Being a resident of the area, where the Texas Seven murdered Officer Aubrey Hawkins, the shocking details of this crime, committed on Christmas Eve 2000, took some of the joy away from the holiday for all of us. It took all the joy away from Officer Hawkins’ family. A family he was enjoying a meal with, when the call came to respond to a burglar alarm.
Officer Hawkins was shot eleven times, and Michael Rodriquez then pulled Officer Hawkins from his squad car, took his weapon, and in escaping, ran over Officer Hawkins body with the car.
Here is the official statement from the Irving Police Department:
The memory of Officer Aubrey Hawkins, his dedication to duty and family are cherished by the Irving Police Department and others that knew Aubrey. His legacy and his service are not forgotten. Our police family suffered a devastating loss through Aubrey’s ultimate sacrifice; however, by pulling together we forged an even stronger will to fulfill our duty to protect and serve our community to the best of our ability.
Following the murder of Officer Hawkins, the focus of our department was to locate, capture, and bring the responsible persons before our judicial system for their crimes. With the assistance of law enforcement agencies across this nation, the suspects were captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced according to the established process of our Criminal Justice System. We continue to have faith in our Criminal Justice System’s ability to hold the appropriate persons accountable for their actions.
I have no sympathy for Rodriquez, but must admit I do have more respect for him, than most others who are on death row, as he has “volunteered” to die, and asked that all appeals on his behalf be halted.
“Judge, I have changed immensely since coming to Death Row and realize my punishment is just, and I wish to be accountable,” he wrote in 2006.
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“I also realize I owe you a debt I can never fulfill and yet I can indeed offer a form of retribution to at least give you a sense of justice,” Mr. Rodriguez wrote.
Rodriquez will be the first of the six defendants to be executed, as the other five are following the traditions of most death row inmates, while the other murderer committed suicide when the police closed in on them in Colorado, before they could fulfill their plan to rob a casino.
It must be mentioned, that Rodriquez had escaped from prison, where he was serving a life sentence for hiring a man to murder his wife, for her life insurance. A wife with whom he was holding her hands, while the assassin crept up from behind, and shot her in the head.
For Officer Hawkins’ widow, and fellow officers, more than twenty of them accompanied her to Hunstville, with four of his pallbearers standing with her as witnesses.
Mrs. Hawkins stated:
“Nothing could keep me away from this.”
“I’ve experienced so many levels of closure that I don’t really know what to expect from this,” she said. “Do you really get final closure? Do you not? I don’t know. But it’s something that I’ve vowed to do from day one.”
As many as two hundred police officers were standing vigil at Huntsville.
Rodriquez was executed at approximately 6:30p.m. CST.
Isn’t it traditional for antis to declare after every execution that they are winning their fight to hug thugs?
Left by Anonymous on August 14th, 2008 at 7:33 pm