IRVING, Texas — This Christmas Eve marks 20 years since the death of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins.
In 2000, while at dinner with his family, Hawkins left his meal responding to a robbery taking place at a sporting goods store located across the highway from the restaurant he was dining at. He couldn’t have known he was about to encounter a group of escaped inmates from a South Texas prison later known as the Texas Seven. Upon arriving at the store, he was met with gunfire, shot 11 times, and is believed to have been killed instantly. He was 29 years old and had served as a police officer for five years.
He’s one of three Irving police officers killed in the line of duty since the department was founded in 1940. At the time, he was only the second death the department had endured and the brutal way in which he was murdered shook the North Texas law enforcement community.
Current Chief of Police Jeff Spivey remembers the night with great detail.
“There’s not a Christmas Eve that between 6 and 6:30 I’m not just constantly watching my watch because I know that that’s when everything took place,” Spivey said.
Then a 33-year-old criminal investigations detective with the department, he recalls getting emergency page messages from his supervisor on his work pager. He had just finished attending a Christmas Eve church service and knew something must have been wrong.
“I was frantically trying to call,” said Spivery as he choked back tears recounting the story. “I wanted to figure out why he was paging me on Christmas Eve, and couldn’t get through, so I ended up calling police dispatch and said, ‘Hey, Sergeant Rowan is trying to call me. What’s going on?’ And they told me we had an officer shot, and it was real bad, and I probably was needing to come to work. So I dropped everything and came to work that night.”
He would work the next 36 hours, missing Christmas with his family, and trying to figure out what had just taken place. The seven escaped convicts had been on the run for almost two weeks and local law enforcement had no idea they were roaming free in their area of North Texas.
Over the next six weeks, one of the largest manhunts in American history took place as law enforcement across the country looked to capture the dangerous men now guilty of killing an officer. Within a month after Hawkins' death, only two of the seven inmates remained unaccounted for. They were found in Colorado exactly one month after the murder.
For journalist Eric Singer in Colorado Springs, the death of Hawkins and the group prison escape were stories he was familiar with. Just like Spivey, he recalls one of the most memorable nights of his career, the night he helped in negotiations that led to the surrender of the final two inmates.
“My connection with Aubrey Hawkins was just like everyone in the United States, horrified as to what happened,” said Singer.
On January 24, 2000, Colorado law enforcement spent hours navigating negotiations between the convicts, the FBI, Colorado Springs police, and other agencies as the remaining convicts locked themselves in a room at a Colorado Springs Holiday Inn. Police surrounded the hotel, leaving no way in or out for the two men. After hours of trying to find a peaceful resolution, negotiators made a deal with the two fugitives; the agreement involved their surrender in exchange for live air time with a local TV station. Negotiators decided to call upon Singer to conduct two separate five-minute interviews with each man.
“They were watching themselves on TV as I’m asking them the question,” said Singer. “They had to turn down the TV so they wouldn’t have feedback.”
After both men had their five minutes on live television, the situation was resolved peacefully with both men surrendering.
Two decades later, Singer says that night was a pivotal moment in his career where he acted as a journalist and community member, one in the same.
“My part of the story was just sealing the deal,” he said. “Law enforcement did the heavy lifting. They’re the heroes in all of this, from Aubrey Hawkins to those who captured and recaptured the Texas Seven.”
Although he’s never spoken with the Hawkins family, his appreciation for law enforcement in personal: his wife is a police officer.
“My heartfelt condolences go out to the family of Aubrey Hawkins,” he said.
Twenty years ago, when Spivey heard of their surrender, a feeling of relief washed over him knowing the men wouldn’t have the chance to strike again. He says he often thinks of Hawkins' sacrifice. In the department's briefing room where officers gather for their daily meetings sit three chairs called briefing chairs.
“They sit in the briefing room and it’s a reminder of an officer who no longer attends a briefing,” Spivey said. “Having that ability to have that reminder there adds to the legacy these officers left, and acts as that reminder that at any point in time, this job can demand the ultimate sacrifice from you.”
As a leader he never wants his officers to take the service they provide their community for granted.
"I don’t want us to ever forget,” he said. “I want us to remember how we felt that night and the good that Aubrey represented and the great work the men and women of the Irving Police Department did to bring justice to Aubrey for that crime.”
He wishes every time someone travels Irving's Aubrey Hawkins Lane, he or she remembers the man behind the name, and the price he paid on Christmas Eve two decades ago.
In honor of the 20th anniversary, the department produced a 14-minute video in which officers who know Hawkins remember him. It can be found on the department's Facebook page.
If you have an interesting story or an issue you’d like to see covered, let us know about it. Share your ideas with DFW reporter Lupe Zapata: Lupe.Zapata@Charter.com.
