April 07--ROXBURY -- There was nothing unusual about the way Charles City County Deputy Sheriff Michael C. Walizer darted out of the sheriff's office in the early morning last Saturday to help another officer corral a speeding car.
"I'll be right back," he told the dispatcher, hustling out the door to help the only other officer on duty in a police force that numbers just eight full-time officers, including Sheriff Javier Smith.
Minutes later, Walizer, 37, an 11-year law enforcement veteran who is father to four young children, was dead, the first officer in the rural county east of Richmond killed in the line of duty.
Walizer's 4-year old Ford Crown Victoria patrol car slammed into a tree as he was westbound on state Route 5 and, according to Virginia State Police, had swerved from the right shoulder of the two-lane highway and across the eastbound lane before leaving the roadway shortly after 2 a.m.
The driver who was the subject of the call to which Walizer was attempting to assist eventually stopped and received a speeding ticket. The wreck that killed Walizer remains under investigation.
Friday, more than 500 people gathered at Samaria Baptist Church near Roxbury, one of the few places in the county of 7,250 people that could contain that number. Another 100 or so people, most of them law enforcement officers from across the state, gathered outside.
It was a service that was less funereal than it was a celebration of ties that bind a rural community.
"He was just a great person, a great sense of humor," said longtime friend Matthew Boldizsar, youth minister at the East End Assembly of God in Henrico County, where Walizer's wife, Mandy, sings with the Praise Team.
"He saw police work as a way to practice his love of family, his love of friends and his love of God," said Boldizsar.
Longtime Charles City Supervisor Floyd Miles Sr. choked back tears speaking of his family's ties to Walizer, who visited Miles' home often to help with chores and house repairs.
On the front row, Floyd Miles Jr., a Charles City deputy with Walizer, wept unabashedly as his brother, state Trooper J.D. Miles, brushed back his own tears and tried to console his brother.
"Mike was my brother's training officer," Trooper Miles said. "They were very close."
Miles Sr. said when he received a call early Saturday, a deep fear rose inside him. "I thought it was one of my boys," he said. "But Mike was like one of my own sons, too."
On a raised platform inside the church, members of the sheriff's office communications staff, including dispatchers, sat together in tribute to Walizer; the dispatcher who watched him head out that Saturday morning shook with grief.
"He had a free spirit that loved life," Sheriff Smith said this week. "He was very close to his family and children and he talked about them quite a lot. For me, he left a legacy of how to be a professional."
Walizer's three sons, ages 1, 9 and 10, all share a big sister, 11. The three oldest children sat on the front row, huddled beside the adults, as they listened to the eulogies and praise for their father, who loved the outdoors, relic hunting and his family.
Smith presented a U.S. flag that covered the coffin to Mandy Walizer; Capt. Jayson Crawley presented Walizer's sheriff's-style hat to the deceased officer's 9-year-old son, Logan.
As the service broke up, the boy wended his way with the hat through the crowd of dignitaries and elected officials, bagpipers and a color guard of 10 officers, five troopers and five deputies from Caroline County, where Walizer once worked.
Logan walked past state police Superintendent W. Stephen Flaherty, Secretary of Public Safety Marla Decker and local mainstays like Chickahominy Indian Chief Stephen R. Adkins.
He held back tears and the whole time the hat's brim stayed perfectly flat, a treasure held in the crook of his arms as if on a platter.
At the repast, Logan managed to put the hat on.
"I bet it hasn't come off yet," Crawley said later.
His words to the boy at the presentation were simple and from the heart: "I love you."
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Copyright 2012 - Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
