University of Cincinnati offers free tuition to fallen officer's 3 children
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The University of Cincinnati will give the three children of fallen Cincinnati police officer Sonny Kim a free education if they choose to attend the college.
“As a small token of gratitude to Officer Sonny Kim, UC will cover full undergraduate tuition for his 3 sons should they matriculate at UC,” UC President Santa J. Ono tweeted Monday morning.
The average cost for a four-year degree at UC is about $50,000, Ono told our news partner WCPO 9 On Your Side.
Kim, 48, a husband and father of three boys, died after being shot while responding to a call of a gunman acting erratically Friday morning.
Police said Kim’s shooter, 21-year-old Trepierre Hummons, called 911 at 9:03 a.m. to report a man in his early 20s “walking around, getting belligerent with a gun” at the corner of Whetsel Avenue and Roe Street in Madisonville. They said he called again a few minutes later.
Kim was the first officer on the scene at 9:19 a.m. Hummons started a fire fight with Kim, Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said. Both men died in the encounter.
Kim, a 27-year veteran of the Cincinnati Police Department, also worked as the owner and main karate instructor at the Japanese Karate-Do dojo in Symmes Twp.
One of Kim's sons left a powerful message left on Instagram Saturday telling his father goodbye.
In it, Kim’s son remembers riding bikes, running 5Ks and laughing at his dad’s “stupid jokes that (he) would purposefully make a straight face at even though they were actually funny.”
UC's offer of free college educations isn't the only thing being offered to the Kim family. Mason Police Association President Derek Bauman started a GoFundMe page, which has already crowdsourced more than $100,000 in donations for the family
