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LOCAL
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 16, 2018 5A
OFFICER
■ Continued from 1A
Photos by AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Cason Johns, 7, from Dawsonville, runs with a flag honoring police officers prior to a procession bringing the remains of DeKalb County Officer Edgar
Flores to his hometown in Habersham County on Saturday, Dec. 15.
Kenneth Cagle of Gainesville ties a flag to the side of his Jeep during the
procession.
from a traffic stop on Candler Road
in DeKalb, according to police. He
was shot multiple times.
Flores was rushed to Grady
Memorial Hospital where he was
pronounced dead.
He was at the beginning of his
law enforcement career, hired by
the police department on May 8,
2017, and a grad
uate of the Nov.
4, 2017, police
academy class,
the county said
Friday morning
in a statement.
But Trejo
knew Flores long
before that. They
had been friends
for about seven years, she said,
after the funeral procession had
passed and the crowd began to
disperse.
“He was just an amazing person
and he was always happy,” said
Trejo, 27, of Gillsville. “It was just
contagious. He was so humble, he
loved to help out people, he was
always there when I needed him.
I’m just going to miss him a lot.”
She said Flores and her brother
started playing soccer together
years ago, which is how she met
him. Since then, they remained
friends and had a “special bond.”
She recalled the time Flores
invited her to a haunted house —
the first she’d ever been too—with
some other friends.
“I’m like, ‘Edgar, get me out of
here,’” Trejo said. “And he’s like,
‘Calm down, calm down. I’m going
to get you out of here ... I prom
ise.’ I can just hear him like it was
yesterday.”
Just like it was her first haunted
house experience years ago, Satur
day was her first experience stand
ing on the side of the road for a law
enforcement funeral procession.
She said it wouldn’t be her last,
though. She plans to attend oth
ers, even if she doesn’t know the
family.
“I know he has a lot of support
and a lot of people that loved him
and cared about him and I’m grate
ful for all these people that came
out here,” Trejo said. “Today it
was him, a friend. And tomorrow,
who knows what other family will
need someone out here.”
Although four other officers in
Georgia have been killed in the
line of duty this year, Trejo said
this one “impacted” her and “hit
more to home” because of their
friendship.
“I wasn’t looking forward to this
day because it hurts a lot,” Trejo
said.
Not everyone who lined the road
Saturday knew Flores.
Jacqueline Johns was there with
her sons Kaden, 10, and Cason, 7,
as well as her daughter Mary Far
ris, 18.
Cason Johns ran back and forth
in the grass, flying a black-and-
white American flag with a blue
stripe instead of the traditional
red-white-and-blue like his older
brother was carrying.
Jacqueline Johns said she was
there because she knows how
much the support means to the
Flores family. Her husband, Chase,
has been in law enforcement for 36
years. He’s a sergeant with the City
‘It’s hard. And it
doesn’t matter if
it’s someone in the
police family we
know or we don’t
know. We’re all one.’
Jacqueline Johns
Dawsonville resident
of Cumming Police Department
now
“I see every day the things he
has to go through,” said Johns, a
Dawsonville resident. “I see the
(post-traumatic stress disorder)
that’s not recognized for officers
from the stuff they have to deal
with each day. The tears when they
come home, the sleepless nights.
And knowing what this family is
going to be going through now, it’s
hard. Even though we don’t know
this family personally, it’s hard
seeing and hearing that we’ve lost
another one.”
In 2010, her husband had an aor
tic aneurysm while on duty on a
shoplifting call. He was transported
to Northside Hospital Forsyth and
quickly taken to Northeast Geor
gia Medical Center for surgery.
Law enforcement lined the roads,
blocking “every little pig trail,
every little road ... so the ambu
lance could get him there.”
That’s why she chose to be there
for the Flores family Saturday.
“It’s hard,” Johns said. “And it
doesn’t matter if it’s someone in
the police family we know or we
don’t know. We’re all one.”
Kenneth Cagle was there, too.
He and his wife, Pamela, were
some of the first to show up, in a
silver Jeep with American flags
attached to the back and a “Blue
Lives Matter” flag strapped to the
front fender. He was encouraged
by the turnout. His son and uncle
are both deputies with the Hall
County Sheriff’s Office.
“Their loss is our loss,” said
Cagle, a Gainesville resident. “We
just have to build it more and we
have to get more involved ... This
is just a little-bitty piece of what we
can do.”
Flores
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