Norfolk, Va - Today family and friends stopped at the end of Wellington Road to drop off flowers at a small memorial built for fallen Officer Brian Jones. That memorial is just feet away from where he was shot and killed by James Brown.
A neighbor, Bobbie Howe, spent her Sunday afternoon collecting money from other neighbors to give to the family of Officer Jones. He was shot and killed Friday night at the hands of James Brown.
This is Howe's way of saying thank you to the officers that helped save her and her husband's life after they were violently attacked last October by Jessie Bishop.
“The officers were here when I needed them,” Howe said. “This is my way of trying to heal and trying to give back to the officers that took care of us."
The couple took Bishop in and treated him like a son. But last October Howe says Bishop just "snapped", slashing the couples' throats and leaving them to die.
”When he told me he was going to cut me up like a fat pig, the woman that you love as a mother you don't do that to" Howe said.
Watching all the violence unfold just down the road on Friday took her back to that night in October.
“Do I think the two were connected I do. I think they were both mentally unbalanced or drugs or both," Howe added.
Howe says Brown and Bishop, the two men responsible for two violent crimes, were friends.
“James came in the house. A couple of time with Jessie and went to Jessie's room and I understand if you have friends and I wouldn't ask questions but he didn't seem odd he just seems respectable," Howe commented.
Looking back she sees similarities in them both.
”They didn't show any disrespect and that's the part that gets me on both of them,” she said.
Howe has already raised nearly $400 for Officer Jones' family. Tomorrow the neighborhood will gather together for a civic league meeting to raise even more money.
