Henry County police officer laid to rest

Henry County police officer Elgin Daniel died doing one of the things he loved most; being a police officer.

He tried to stop once. But he couldn’t, colleagues and friends said at his funeral Friday. So two years after retiring from the DeKalb Police Department as a lieutenant, Daniel took a job as a patrolman in Henry County.

“Elgin was born into the world to be a police officer,” said John Pearson, a retired assistant chief at the DeKalb County Police Department, where Daniel worked 26 years.

Daniel, 53, died Monday night while helping a motorist who told authorities he ran out of gas and was stranded on the side of Georgia138. Daniel and roadside assistance worker John Cook were both hit by a passing vehicle that kept going. Cook survived.

The suspected driver of the vehicle, 43-year-old Ruben Marin-Garibay of Stockbridge, is being held in the Henry County jail without bond on charges related to Daniel’s death.

Daniel was the third metro Atlanta area police officer to die on the job in little more than a week.

Daniel’s death came just two days after the funeral of the one of the two Atlanta Police officers killed Nov. 3 when the helicopter they were in crashed while they searched for a missing 9-year-old boy.

“Police officers killed in the line of duty is becoming a recurring dream,” said The Rev. Dewey Smith, who said the funeral of one of the APD officers was held at his church just a week ago.

Mourners at Daniel’s service at the Greater Travelers Rest Baptist Church in Decatur tried to make sense of it.

Assistant Chief Annette Williams, of the DeKalb Police Department, said stranded motorist calls are sometimes considered routine, but “no call is routine.”

Williams was in the police academy with Daniel in 28 years ago. She struggled when talking about the man almost every speaker described as “quiet” and “private.”

“He gave his life offering a help hand. He gave his life by expressing his love for another human being,” she said.

Daniel, married and a father of two sons and a daughter, spent a good part of his career working at night. Even when he coached Little League baseball and basketball, he would go to night games, then report to work, one of his friends said.

Smith used his eulogy to decry budget cuts that have left police agencies understaffed and officers underpaid.

“Make law enforcement a priority and (be sure it) remains a priority,” Smith said.

Police officers and sheriff’s deputies from law enforcement agencies across Georgia sat shoulder-to-shoulder during the two-hour service that began with fellow Henry County officers stepping up to Daniel’s open casket one-by-one and giving him a slow, white-gloved salute.

State Rep. Sandra Scott (D-Rex) read a legislative proclamation honoring Daniel, and Harris Blackwood, head of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, read a letter from Gov. Nathan Deal.