ST. LOUIS — Mayor Krewson was one of several politicians, Republicans and Democrats, across the state sending out messages of support for officer Bohannon's fellow officers and family after he was shot and killed.
But on a topic she usually doesn't talk much about, Mayor Krewson's words were perhaps more personal.
Monday, in an interview with 5 On Your Side St. Louis Mayor, Lyda Krewson publicly expressed her support for city officers who now must carry on after one of their own was killed in the line of duty - officer Tamarris Bohannon.
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Privately the day before at Saint Louis University Hospital, she met with officer Bohannon's widow.
"There are no good words in these moments of crisis. And so sometimes the less said, the better," Krewson said.
Krewson would know, because she knows the pain of a loss like this.
In 1995, in an attempted carjacking near their Central West End home,
Krewson's husband Jeffrey Krewson was shot and killed in front of their two children.
His murder spurred her run for office and two years later she was elected to the city's Board of Aldermen.
Like Krewson's husband, officer Bohannon also leaves behind young children.
"Certainly this is just a heartbreaking situation," Krewson said. "You know, I just told her how sorry I was. And, you know, he has three little kids. And just how sorry we are. And anything that we can do to help support their family at this terrible time. And going in the future that we are there to do that."
Krewson's experience also informs her rejection of the call to defund the police in order to increase funding for jobs officers are asked to do, but may not be trained to do.
"And I do believe that we need more funding for mental health. We need more funding for addiction. We need more funding to to assist people who are in crisis. But I do not believe we need less funding for the police department. We need more funding for those other for those other topics, but not less money for the police department," she added.
