COC

HUB CITY HEROES

 

KEVIN MICHAEL BURRELL		JAMES WAYNE MACDONALD

 

 

The City of Compton salutes Officer Kevin Michael Burrell and Reserve Officer James Wayne MacDonald as Hub City Heroes. These two dedicated officers were gunned down on February 22, 1993, following a vehicle stop. MacDonald, 24, and Burrell, 29, were the first officers to die in the line of duty during the 125-year history of the Compton Police Department.

 

Kevin Burrell was a 6-foot, 6-inch gentle giant known for his basketball prowess and easy manner as a policeman. Lieutenant Gary Anderson groomed him in both pursuits. Burrell’s association with the department began when he joined the Explorer Scouts at the age of 15. Fellow officers describe Burrell filling out reports at the counter for eight hours, and then working another eight hours accompanying Lieutenant Anderson as he worked patrol on the graveyard shift. When Burrell became an officer in 1988, Anderson coached him on the Compton Police Department basketball team that competed in the Police Olympics.

 

Burrell, the fifth of seven children, was a starting center for the Compton High School basketball team in 1981, when the team finished second in the Moore League. He went on to California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), where he was a captain of the basketball team and a student escort for the campus police. "I watched him grow up professionally," said Michael Lordanich, police chief at CSUDH. "He was as kind a person as you would want to meet. He was a gentle giant."

 

Burrell attended CSUDH from 1981 through 1985, studying public administration and criminal justice. He then went to work for the Compton P.D. as a civilian for several years before becoming a sworn officer. As a police officer, "He always had time to chit-chat with you. It made you feel like he was your own son or father,” said Gladys Russell, a Compton resident since 1956. "He wasn't the kind to throw you up against a car. He would have long talks with young people in trouble," she said.

The day before he died, Burrell, who was single, talked with a high school chum about sports, his 3-year-old son, Kevin Jr., and the city where he grew up and still lived. "He knew everybody. He felt safe," said Greg Woods.

 

 

 

 

February 23 would have been the last shift for Compton Reserve Officer James Mac Donald. Officer MacDonald had only about 15 minutes left on his last shift the night he was shot. The athletic 24-year-old was on his way to San Jose, California, where he was scheduled to enter the San Jose Police Department Academy.

 

"It's sad. I sit back and think, could we have started the academy class a month early?" said San Jose Police Sergeant Gary Bertelson, who headed recruitment for the department. Mac Donald was one of 60 candidates selected out of 240 applicants for the 1,250-officer department. MacDonald grew up in Santa Rosa and attended Piner High School, a private school in that city. In 1987, when he was a senior, MacDonald was the quarterback and led the football team to a 9-1 season. MacDonald, who was single, continued to play sports, mostly adult league basketball and softball.

MacDonald briefly attended California State University Sacramento, before transferring to California State University Long Beach (CSULB), where he was close to graduating with a degree in speech communications and criminal justice.

“Mac Donald was sitting in a criminal justice class at CSULB when he was recruited as a reserve for the Compton P.D.,” said Lieutenant Flores. That was June 1, 1991.

Reserve officers go through training, and then volunteer for 16 hours per month, and are paid an hourly wage for additional hours worked. "Jimmy Mac (as MacDonald was known) was a very fine reserve officer. He worked a lot and learned quickly," said Sergeant Michael Markey, then president of the Compton Police Officers Association. "His department thought very highly of him," Bertelson said. "He was only a reserve, but he was putting in a full week’s work, which is above and beyond the requirement." He was so looking forward to leaving and starting his new job," said police Officer Mark Lobel, a close friend of MacDonald.

 

The lives and careers of both officers were cut short at some time between 11:00 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. on February 22, 1993. The officers were answering an unrelated disturbance call when they spotted a "possible traffic violation of suspicious circumstances," and decided to make a traffic stop on a customized red Chevrolet pick-up truck traveling westbound on Rosecrans Avenue from Wilmington Avenue. They stopped the truck on Rosecrans Avenue just east of Dwight Avenue.

According to witness statements, Officers Burrell and MacDonald approached the red truck, and the suspect exited the driver's door. Reportedly, both officers were attempting to physically restrain the suspect, each officer attempting to control the suspect's arms by placing them behind his back. During the struggle, the suspect armed himself from his person with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol and began shooting at both officers. The suspect continued to fire upon the officers even after they fell to the ground. He then re-entered the truck and fled the scene. The suspect, who was on parole, was subsequently tried and convicted of the murders. He received the death penalty.

In memory of the two brave officers, the City renamed one of its parks Burrell McDonald Park. The friends, family and citizens of Compton will forever remember Officers Kevin Michael Burrell and James Wayne MacDonald for making the ultimate sacrifice while performing work they loved.