St. Paul Sgt. Vick remembered 20 years after he was killed in line of duty

Yahoo

05-05-2025

Law enforcement and St. Paul firefighters wait near Erick's Bar on E. Seventh St. in St. Paul on May 6, 2005, where police officer Sgt. Gerald Vick was shot early that morning in an alley across the street from the bar. Police said Vick and a fellow officer were working a prostitution investigation in the bar before the shooting. Vick, 41, was taken to Regions Hospital, but less than 30 minutes later, at 2:46 a.m., he was pronounced dead. (Craig Borck / Pioneer Press) A SWAT team stands by Friday, May 6. 2005 outside a home in the 900 block of Minnehaha Avenue as St. Paul police and other law enforcement personnel set up a perimeter and searched house-to-house for the killers of Sgt. Gerald Vick. (Craig Borck / Pioneer Press) St Paul Police Sgt. Shawn Campbell adds a snapshot of Sgt. Gerald Vick to the wall that carries Vick's newly-etched name at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, May 13, 2006. Campbell was part of a contingent of St. Paul Police officers who traveled to Washington to honor Vick, the first St. Paul police officer killed in the line of duty in 11 years, who was shot to death May 6, 2005. (John Doman / Pioneer Press) St. Paul Sgt. Gerald Vick's longtime police partner, Sgt. Matt Toupal, escorts Connie Vick back to her seat after she received her husband's posthumous Medal of Honor from the Fraternal Order of Police in Washington D.C. on Monday, May 15, 2006. (John Doman / Pioneer Press) Kevin Torgerson, of the Olmstead County Sheriff's Department, composes himself after playing "Taps" with other Law Enforcement Memorial Association buglers during the interment for Sgt. Gerald Vick at St. Mary's Cemetery in North St. Paul on May 11. 2005. (John Doman / Pioneer Press) Show Caption1 of 6Sgt. Gerald Vick was 41 when he was shot and killed Friday, May 6, 2005, in St. Paul, Minn., while working undercover with a vice unit. It was the department's first line-of-duty death since 1994. (Courtesy of the St. Paul Police Department)Expand
St. Paul Police Sgt. Jerry Vick would be retired from the police department now and enjoying being a grandfather.
He was 41 when he was fatally shot in the line of duty on May 6, 2005. His two children were 11 and 14 back then.
'After 20 years, I still find it hard to believe that he's gone,' Matt Toupal, who was Vick's long-time police partner, said recently. '… It's hard every year to reflect on that because his death was so violent. There's scars — his family, his wife, his children, the grandchildren that he's not able to see.'
The police department, which usually has roll call meetings in each patrol district before shifts start, will be holding a citywide roll call for current and retired officers to memorialize Vick on Tuesday.
Vick had been working undercover with another officer, investigating prostitution in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood, when there was a confrontation outside a bar and Vick was shot in an alley. Harry Jerome Evans, now 52, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence in prison.
Vick's death was the first line-of-duty death of a St. Paul police officer since Ron Ryan Jr. and Tim Jones in 1994, and he was the last St. Paul officer fatally shot in the line of duty, though there have been other tragedies. In the 20 years since, other officers have been shot in St. Paul and survived.
On May 1, 2010, Maplewood Sgt. Joe Bergeron was searching for carjacking suspects in St. Paul when he was killed in an ambush.
Also during the last two decades, the St. Paul police department has recognized the deaths of two other officers, Joseph Lynaugh and Felicia Reilly, as occurring in the line of duty.
Toupal, who retired as a St. Paul police deputy chief three years ago, met Vick in 1989 when they were in the St. Paul Police Department academy together.
'They had us in alphabetical order and Toupal is next to Vick, so we started talking and we connected,' Toupal remembered. They were partnered for the following 10½ years.
On a night when they were in separate squad cars because of short-staffing, Toupal arrived at a house fire after Vick. 'I thought, 'Boy this is a bad fire.' I looked a little closer and there's Jerry, up on the second floor, handing out a baby and saving lives.'
Vick pulled a 3-year-old boy from that burning house in 1990 and crawled back in to rescue a 15-month-old girl. The police department awarded Vick the Medal of Valor, its highest honor. He was later recognized with two more, the most at the time in the department's history.
'Jerry always had a knack for being at the right place at the right time,' Toupal said.
One time, Vick and Toupal were sent to what was reported as a violent domestic assault. From outside the house, the officers could hear arguing; they pounded on the door, but realized it wasn't an assault at all — a woman was about to have a baby, and her husband was screaming for help, Toupal said.
In the living room, Vick delivered the baby boy, whose umbilical cord was around his neck; he unwrapped the cord and was able to get the baby to start breathing.
'It was really remarkable because we weren't trained in delivering babies, but Jerry was the man. That's what he did all the time,' Toupal said.
Vick's wife, Connie, never remarried, his friends say. The couple's son and daughter each have children of their own now.
Vick's father, Dennis, died the month after his son. His mother, Maggie Vick, died in 2020.
When Toupal and Vick were partners, Toupal remembers that Vick's mother 'was really concerned that her son would get hurt' as an officer. Toupal said he told Maggie he'd make sure nothing happened to her son.
Then, after Vick was killed and people poured into Maggie's house, he knew what she would say to him.
'She was crying, and I can see her now pointing her finger at me, saying, 'You promised me,'' Toupal said. 'What do you say to that? Other than just giving her a hug and saying you're sorry.'
Though the officers were working in different units and weren't together when Vick was shot, Toupal said he understood Maggie's pain.
At Vick's memorial service, then-Police Chief John Harrington said a young woman told him that Vick saved her life when she was 19. Vick, who was working in the vice unit when he was killed, was known for trying to rescue girls and women from prostitution.
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He was 6'4,' a 'big bear of a guy — but it didn't matter if you were a victim or a suspect, he had this big, loving heart,' said retired St. Paul Sgt. Shawn Campbell last week. He met Vick and Toupal when he also patrolled in the Eastern District, and the three were later on the SWAT team together.
The police department started the Gerald D. Vick Human Trafficking Task Force in 2005, after Vick was killed. The taskforce has since joined a state taskforce to have a bigger impact, according to a police spokeswoman.
Each anniversary of Vick's death is a painful reminder, Campbell said.
'There's always a hole in your heart and that doesn't heal,' he added.