Patrolman Bryan Scott Verkler, Mishawaka Police Department, Indiana

Patrolman Bryan Scott Verkler

Mishawaka Police Department, Indiana

End of Watch Saturday, December 13, 2003

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Bryan Scott Verkler

Patrolman Bryan Verkler and Corporal Thomas Roberts were shot and killed after they responded to a call of shots being fired.

The suspect had a dispute with a neighbor, and during the dispute, he fired several rounds into the air prompting residents to call the police. When Patrolman Verkler and Corporal Roberts arrived, they were led to a house where the suspect was hiding.

The officers attempted to lure the suspect out. When the suspect exited the house, he opened fire on the officers, striking them both. A third officer was able to return fire and shot the suspect once. Corporal Roberts died at the scene, and Patrolman Verkler was transported to a local hospital, where he died two hours later during surgery.

The suspect subsequently committed suicide.

Patrolman Verkler served with the Mishawaka Police Department for 2½ years. He was survived by his wife.

Bio

Age 27
Tour 2 years, 6 months
Badge 20154

Incident Details

Cause Gunfire
Weapon Handgun
Offender Committed suicide

shots fired

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Well...here I am again. I wanted to type this before my emotions get the best of me....I am trying very hard not to think about the fact that tomorrow is start of my unofficial "countdown". It's not the traditional, happy, & overzealous countdown until Christmas either. It is the dreaded EOW.

I try not to remember the events of that night or the how's, what's, when's, where's or WHY's bc in the end it will only drive me insane. What I can only try to control is my reaction to all of it. In that choosing, I choose to remember US. The US of when we first met, how I saw your smile for the first time & knew that I had already fallen in love with you..HARD....but I barely knew you for < 1 hour...for our amazing honeymoon trip to the Kern mountains, of US fly fishing for our first time, of US taking video with that big HUGE camera.....holy cow you wouldn't believe how much has changed in the world since you've been gone. This all leads me to my last & most least part of remembering the EOW...& the sudden, horrific, & tragic loss of you. I will try to always dwell on the positive of what we had, & not concentrate on how you were taken from me. This world has always been a cruel, disruptive & calloused place....but on 12/13....the world suddenly STOPPED spinning on its axis for me.....someone had taken away our US.

The story of US was not supposed to end that way. WE would be sending our kids off to college, dealing with looking "old", & laughing hysterically at one of our 1000's of inside jokes. The story of US is the one of us looking up on Silver Strand beach in La Jolla at the fireworks at the Del that weren't exactly for US & our wedding party....but we pretended it was for US anyway. Here's to the US that got to eat our wedding cake out of the freezer a few weeks after the wedding instead of waiting a whole year so I would have to defrost the cake & stare at it forever....because we were never even allowed to celebrate one FULL year of being married together. I cannot believe it will be 20 years....but let me tell you...it has felt like 200! I miss you still like I did then.

Time never heals all wounds....that's a farce that someone came up with so they could tell it to ppl at funerals......Time doesn't heal the old wounds. It just causes a massive shrinkage of the muscle that once knew love via muscle memory. It causes atrophy, & then sudden death. The scars are intricately woven around what is left of my broken, shattered, & macerated heart....here I am....there YOU are. WE should never have been separated that is for sure.

Until we meet again My Love....

I love you now & forever more,
Your Wife

November 30, 2023