Remembering Ernie

By Tom Waring

Times Staff Writer

Joyce Davis fondly recalls her husband, Ernie.

"He was a very good father, and he loved being a cop," she said.

Ernie Davis, who lived on Minden Road in Parkwood, worked in the Police Department's radio room before becoming an officer. He was assigned to the 25th Police District.

The five-year veteran was on patrol shortly after 3 a.m. on July 16, 1980, when he heard a report of a man with a gun at Broad Street and Erie Avenue.

The officer approached the gunman, who was in a group of men, and was shot. He was transported to Temple University Hospital, and initial reports were that he was going to survive, but he died at 6:50 a.m.

"It was a shock," said Joyce Davis.

Last week, almost 29 years after the murder, a large crowd gathered at Broad and Erie to honor the sacrifice of Ernie Davis.

As part of the Hero Cops program, a plaque was installed in the sidewalk near the exact spot where the officer was shot. The plaque is the sixth that has been dedicated this year - and 69th overall - as part of a joint effort of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 and lawyer Jimmy Binns.

The Police Academy classes 235, 236, 237 and 238, which graduated in the mid-1970s, sponsored the plaques.

Deputy Police Commissioner Patricia Giorgio-Fox, who was part of class 237, said the officers from that era have remained close and were proud to sponsor the plaque.

"There's never been a time that we've been together as a group that Ernie Davis' name hasn't been brought up," she said at the July 1 ceremony.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham pointed to the officers who had graduated from the Police Academy just two days earlier and thanked them for making the commitment to help people and make a difference.

"Good men and women want to serve," she said.

There was a brief scare when one of those new officers, a 23-year-old man, collapsed face-first to the ground, apparently due to the heat. Medics rushed to the scene and provided oxygen. He was alert before being taken to Temple University Hospital and was released after being examined.

Otherwise, the ceremony was just like previous ones, dignified and focused on the fallen officer's legacy.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 president John McNesby presented the family with a pillow that included the words inscribed on the plaque.