DC police, community members say final goodbye to officer struck while helping stranded driver
Law enforcement officers and community members packed a Maryland church Friday morning for the funeral of D.C. police officer Terry Bennett, who was hit while helping a stuck driver in December.
At City of Praise Family Ministries in Landover, D.C. Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said Bennett didn’t “just serve this city. He gave his life for it.”
The service came exactly a month after police said Bennett was hit while helping a stranded motorist on Interstate 695.
Bennett was helping a driver whose car broke down in the eastbound lanes of I-695 near South Capitol Street. A passing vehicle hit him just after 10 p.m., police said.
Bennett remained hospitalized after the incident and died in early January.
“He was resilient and caring,” Carroll said. “He was the kind of officer every chief hopes to have, and the kind of colleague every officer hopes to work with.”
Bennett was born and raised in D.C. and had worked in the Metropolitan Police Department for eight years. He graduated from Ballou Senior High School in 2011, and was an assistant football coach there.
Kenny Brown, the school’s head coach, said Friday that the “number two is officially retired.”
“If anybody knew Terry, like I’ve been telling people, you can’t tell him he wasn’t a founding father of Ballou,” Brown said.
First District Cmdr. Colin Hall reflected on presenting Bennett with a first district officer of the month award after Bennett had helped close a robbery case.
“It’s not a surprise he was doing what heroes do,” Hall said. “That’s what he did. He was called to act.”
Bennett was an organ donor, and during the service, Maya Jai Pinson said she had end-stage kidney failure and received one of Bennett’s kidneys.
“Officer Bennett didn’t receive a second chance, but he made sure that others would, and because of that plan, I was given a second chance at life,” Pinson said.
When the service concluded, dozens of police, National Guard members and D.C. Fire and EMS officials lined M Street near the First District station.
They saluted as the procession drove by underneath a large American flag attached to the ladders from two fire trucks.
Bennett’s car, covered with flowers and stuffed animals, remains parked in front of the police station, with his photo on the windshield.
Jerrold Coates, 47, of Northwest D.C., was arrested and charged with second-degree murder while armed in Bennett’s death.