Former Cobb police officer dies years after wreck

Doctors gave Cobb County police officer Freddie Norman less than a 1 percent chance of surviving the night after a drunk driver rammed his patrol car nearly 21 years ago.

Norman, 45, died Saturday at Wellstar Cobb Hospital from complications arising from injuries suffered in the April 1988 accident, said Cobb police spokesman Nathan McCreary.

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Andy Sharp/AJC file

Freddie Norman is shown at his Austell home in 1998 with his mother, Billie Galbreath, working with the computer he used to communicate.

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His death was a surprise, said his younger brother, Kevin Norman. “He had come a long way,” the 41-year-old Austell man said.

When Freddie Norman was released from the hospital after seven months in recovery, he was able to move only a toe and the little finger of his right hand. The Austell man’s brain stem was injured in the crash, compromising muscle control.

But he persevered, eventually communicating through a computer. Hardship never overwhelmed his needling wit, Norman’s brother said.

“He liked to push your buttons, in a fun way,” Kevin Norman said. “Sometimes he’d get frustrated, but he’d always turn it around into something he could laugh about.”

In the years following his accident, Norman married a second time and fathered his third daughter. Defying medical odds until his death, he had begun to speak a few words, family members said.

“He had plain old tenacity,” said his father-in-law, Don Grant. “Just to type on that computer was difficult for him because he had no dexterity.”

Norman was a rookie cop, on the force for just over a year, when he was hurt. In 1998, he received the Blue Star Award, given to officers injured in the line of duty.

An even bigger tribute followed eight years later when his middle daughter, Christi Norman, now 24, was sworn in as an officer with the Austell Police Department.

“I think the main reason she joined the force was because of her father,” Kevin Norman said.

McCreary said Norman likely would receive “full law enforcement honors as a member of the Cobb County Police Department.”

“He showed up at every law enforcement event that he could,” McCreary said.

Norman’s funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Roswell Street Baptist Church in Marietta. He also is survived by his wife, Faith, and daughters Kim, 26, and Hope, 12.