Hawthorne Police Rally to Aid Officer Shot on Outing

Hawthorne Police Department veterans like to recall the camaraderie of the good old days, when police buddies often spent weekends camping or helping each other with work around their houses.

So six policemen and two relatives said they planned a weekend camping trip this month to bring back some of that brotherhood.

In a tragic way, it did.

Patrolman Tom Jester, 33, was accidentally shot while exploring an abandoned mine near Red Rock Canyon in Kern County. Since Jester has been in a hospital--facing the possible amputation of his lower left leg--Hawthorne policemen have rallied to cover his work schedule, run errands for his family and donate blood.

Said fellow patrolman David Harris: “All the togetherness comes back. You wonder why something like this has to happen for the camaraderie to come back.”

Harris and two other campers were hiking with Jester on the night of March 13. The group had been shooting that day at clay pigeons and tin cans and when Jester descended into the mine, he was carrying an AR-15 military-type rifle.

Jester was climbing out of the mine, with the rifle slung over one shoulder, when he slipped against the side of the mine. The gun discharged, shattering the bone just above his left ankle.

The eight-year police veteran was bleeding badly as he lay on the ledge where he fell. His fellow officers agreed that he was too badly injured to be moved.

They called for help on a citizen’s band radio. Three hours later, Kern County sheriff’s deputies and an ambulance arrived, Harris said, and it took another hour to drive to a hospital in Ridgecrest.

Doctors told Jester this week that he will have to decide whether to have his foot and lower leg amputated or to undergo a series of bone grafts over several years that might restore the leg, police Lt. Herb Mundon said.

Jester’s sick time and vacation pay would have quickly been exhausted had not 30 other officers, from Mundon and Capt. Steve Port on down through the ranks, signed up to work Jester’s graveyard shift.

“We are trying to cover things so he won’t get to the point where he would have no pay,” Mundon said. “The primary effect is to help him and his wife and his little girl. But we also benefit from it psychologically. . . . It is difficult to sit here with nothing to do (to help), so it is good for us.”

Police from Hawthorne and other cities have donated blood for Jester, and others have helped to care for his daughter, Kelly, 4, while his wife, Linda, visits him at Henry Mayo-Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia.

Policemen have also mowed the lawn and done other chores at Jester’s Canyon Country home, and they have taken up a collection to help pay utilities and other expenses.

‘Want to Do Something’

“Police officers do have a brotherhood,” said Port. “We at least want to do something for him. We can’t restore his loss.”

Jester was clearly moved by the efforts. “When something like this happens, they really all come together,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s real tough for me, but I guess you can tell how I feel.”

Jester served as a field training officer for other patrol officers. He received a distinguished service award a year ago from the South Bay Medal of Valor Awards Committee for his part in the rescue of an elderly woman.

A fire broke out near the woman’s home, but she was disabled by polio and unable to flee. Jester kicked down her locked apartment door and carried the woman to safety.