The real hero was the one who was shot

This appeared in the Buffalo News 8/20.
Seeing that it's about an escaped inmate, I thought I'd post it here..

By DONN ESMONDE
I am not amused.
None of us should be amused. There is nothing to be amused about.
Burn the "Run Bucky Run" T-shirts. Stuff the Bucky Burgers in the dumpster. Spare me the photo of the fugitive wearing a state trooper cap. End the idea that this is a romantic, "Thelma and Louise" flight for freedom.
Any suggestion that Ralph "Bucky" Phillips' saga is worth more than dirt and spit ended the night a bullet tore into state Trooper Sean Brown. Tests on the recovered gun put Phillips' finger on the trigger. That violent moment two months ago blew apart any notion that this is a perversely amusing fox-outsmarts-the-hunters tale.
The ongoing story is not about a career criminal, chronic loser and violent menace named Ralph Phillips. It is not about a guy who spent most of his adult life behind bars because he was too dangerous to mingle among ordinary folks. It is not about an escaped felon hiding in the woods, stealing cars and apparently getting food and shelter from wrong-headed folks.
No. The story is about Sean Brown, who was protecting us when police say Phillips put a bullet in his abdomen. As Brown fell, badly wounded, Phillips fled into the night - for all he knew leaving a corpse behind.
By the grace of God, the bullet did not obliterate a vital organ, did not cut Sean Brown's spinal cord or sever a prime artery. By the grace of God, Sean Brown recovered from his wound. On Aug. 8, in a milestone far bigger than any Bucky antic, Brown strapped on the gun and went back to work.
Whether he still has the nightmares that naturally come after you lay gut-shot on the road, only Sean Brown knows. I just hope that his psyche healed with his wound. I'd tell him so, except Brown is limiting media contact.
I know this much: Brown is married, 30, with two small children. When the call came for volunteers to help Katrina victims, he was first on the list for New Orleans. He helped put together the memorial park honoring trooper and barracks-mate Andrew Sperr, shot dead last March.
"He's the kind of guy," said friend and fellow trooper Mark O'Donnell, "who puts other people first."
The real story is about a decent guy doing a dangerous job. Any pity, sympathy, prayers, cards or casseroles should be sent Brown's way. The T-shirts ought to read "Welcome Back, Sean." The diner menus ought to list a Brown Burger. The Bucky brand is junk food.
Apart from the rest, Phillips' desperate run is costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. The months-long manhunt pulled troopers off road patrol, forced countless hours of surveillance and put police helicopters in the air. It also stuck a bull's-eye on every man and woman who wears a badge - and maybe on anybody who spots Phillips and reaches for a cell phone.
"He is costing taxpayers a lot of money," O'Donnell said. "But if we pull out and he shoots somebody, we take the [blame]."
Chasing an expert woodsman like Phillips means putting your life on the edge. The family of every trooper lives in fear of the phone call that says a husband, father, son or daughter will never come home again. That is the legacy of Ralph Phillips. That is the lens through which this story should be viewed.
Phillips reportedly won't go back to jail. If cornered, he may choose "suicide by cop." It is the coward's way out - and it would force a police officer to shoulder the emotional burden of ending a man's life, however justifiable. It is not right; it is not fair. None of this is.
Stop running, Bucky. You are no hero.
Sean Brown is the hero. You are just a long-lost guy with blood on his hands.