The family of another fallen Chicago police officer has reached out to slain Cmdr. Paul Bauer's wife and daughter in hopes of encouraging them through the heartbreak and grief.
On. Jan 5, 2012 Officer Clifton Lewis was laid to rest, his mother and fiance, Latrice Tucker, tearfully watched his flag-draped coffin.
Tucker said Friday old wounds have reopened with the murder of Bauer.
"At first I cried," she said. "The first thought that came to mind was I want to go hug his wife."
She said there are no words Bauer's widow or "beautiful little girl" to make them understand what happened.
Lewis was killed Dec. 29, 2011.
At 41 years old he was an 8-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. Lewis was shot during a robbery at a convenience store in the Austin neighborhood where he was working security at the time.
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Lewis and Tucker were together 10 years, engaged for just five days.
"There was nothing anyone could say to me to make me understand what happened," Tucker said. "It was like ... this is not real."
She said there’s been no escaping the new tragic reality.
"Even if you turn the television off, people are talking about it constantly people asking did you hear that did you see that did you know him," she said of Bauer.
Tucker didn’t know Bauer's family but she did say she knows all too well the pain they must feel.
"That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, was to walk out the door and see a family car there for me to lay my loved one to rest," she said.
"At the end of me speaking at his homegoing service, my voice cracked and a tear fell," she remembered. "My mother-in-law grabbed my hand and said 'I'm here' and that kept me through that day and that keeps me through every day."
She wants the Bauer family to know that they will never be the same but they will never be alone.
"It may be a couple of months before you get the call but you get the call, 'how are you, are you OK, do you need anything,'" she said. "Those who say they will never forget, they never forget."
