{{Short description|American police officer (1950–1974)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2014}} {{Use American English|date=May 2014}} {{Infobox police officer | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = Gail A. Cobb MPDC 1.png{{!}}border | caption = | status = | department = Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia | birth_date = {{Birth date|1950|08|17|mf=yes}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|09|20|1950|08|17|mf=yes}} | nickname = | badge_number = 321 | birth_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.<ref name="Wilbanks">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9zkaLjPuScMC&q=%22Gail+a.+cobb%22&pg=PA29|title=True Heroines: Police Women Killed in the Line of Duty Throughout the United States|date=2000|last=Wilbanks|first=William|lccn=00-102578|isbn=1-56311-523-9|publisher=Turner Publishing Company|location=Paducah, Kentucky|pages=29–31|access-date=July 31, 2014}}</ref> | death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.<ref name="Wilbanks"/> | resting_place = Lincoln Memorial Cemetery<ref name="Wilbanks"/> | resting_place_coordinates = {{Coord|38.856275|-76.948486|type:landmark|display=inline,title|name=Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, Suitland, Maryland}} | religion = | allegiance = Washington, D.C. | service = United States | service_years = {{Nowrap|October 1973{{spaced ndash}}September 1974<ref name="Wilbanks"/>}} | rank = Officer<ref name="MPDC-Memorial">{{cite web|url=http://mpdc.dc.gov/page/memorial-gail-cobb|title=Memorial to Gail A. Cobb - MPDC|work=Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia|author=Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia|publisher=District of Columbia|access-date=December 20, 2012}}</ref> | awards = | memorials = | alma_mater = St. Cecilia's Academy<ref name=McJackie>{{cite web|url=http://www.mcjackie.com/cobb.html|title=Officer Gail Cobb - McJackie|last=McElroy|first=Jackie|access-date=December 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051436/http://www.mcjackie.com/cobb.html|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> | other_work = | module = }} '''Gail Adrienne Cobb''' (August 17, 1950{{spaced ndash}}September 20, 1974) was a Black American police officer from Washington, D.C., the first female police officer in the United States shot and killed in the line of duty. She was also the first uniformed female officer of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC) to have been killed in the line of duty.<ref name="Wilbanks"/><ref name=McJackie /><ref name="MPDC-Memorial"/><ref name=ODMP />
==Early life and education== Gail Cobb was born in Washington, D.C., on August 17, 1950, the second of five children, and grew up living in a row house near the intersection of 14th and D Streets in Northeast, Washington, D.C.<ref name="Wilbanks"/> Cobb's family moved to Washington, D.C., in the 1930s. Her father was Clinton Cobb, a correctional Captain for the District of Columbia who applied to the Metropolitan Police Department ("MPDC") in 1953. He was rejected because he was shorter than the mandatory height requirement of {{convert|5|ft|8|in}} tall. Cobb's mother, Gloria Cobb, worked as a crossing guard at Kingsman Elementary School when she met Cobb's father at Cardoza High School. Cobb's sister, Denise, became a schoolteacher.<ref name="Wilbanks"/>
As a child, Cobb attended Catholic elementary school and was described as an average, but creative and energetic student. Then, she attended Elliot Jr. High School, Eastern High School, and St. Cecilia's Academy.<ref name="Wilbanks"/> Upon graduating St. Cecila's Academy in 1969, Cobb wanted to become a successful fashion designer. However, she had little means and knowledge on how to go about doing so and ended up becoming a telephone operator.<ref name="Wilbanks"/>
==Personal life== At the age of 19, Cobb gave birth to a son, Damon Demetrius Cobb, on February 26, 1970. Her son's father, whom Cobb had met and dated in high school, took no responsibility as a father. Cobb raised their son as a single parent. Damon Demetrius Cobb is currently serving a life sentence in prison at the Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland, after being found guilty of first-degree murder in a 1992 killing. Cobb's parents stated in 1996 that they believe his mother's murder (when Damon was 4) deeply influenced his life and led to his legal problems.<ref name="Wilbanks"/><ref name=McJackie /><ref name="B-More-Sun">{{cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1996/11/12/ex-inmates-bid-to-be-lawyer-angers-slain-officers-family-dortch-planned-fatal-robbery-friends-call-new-life-a-model/|title=Ex-inmate's bid to be lawyer angers slain officer's family Dortch planned fatal robbery - friends call new life a model|first=Dennis|last=O'Brien|work=The Baltimore Sun|location=Maryland|date=November 12, 1996|access-date=December 20, 2012}}</ref><ref name=MD-DOC>{{cite web|url=http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/inmate/search.do?searchType=detail&id=80068|title=Damon Demetrius Cobb - Maryland DOC Inmate Locator|work=Maryland Department of Corrections|publisher=State of Maryland|date=March 8, 2013|access-date=July 31, 2014}}</ref>
==Career== In October 1973, Cobb applied to the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia to become a federal police officer. By that time, the federal government had lowered the mandatory height requirement for police officers to five feet, thus removing a barrier that blocked accepting women as police officers.<ref name="Wilbanks"/> Gail Cobb was five feet tall. She graduated with her 34-member Metropolitan Police Academy Class in April 1974, of which 13 police cadets were women. At the time, it was the largest graduating class of female police officers in the United States. Gail Cobb was well-liked by her trainers, who noted she was hard-working and committed to serving her community. She spent most of her patrol work on foot and volunteered for police training to get a motorcycle license, in addition to taking night classes to learn sign language.<ref name=McJackie /><ref name="Wilbanks"/>
==Death== {{Infobox civilian attack | title = Murder of Gail Cobb | partof = | image = | image_size = | caption = | map = | map_size = | map_caption = | location = Vanguard Building (parking garage)<br />20th and L Streets, Northwest<br />Washington, D.C., U.S. | target = {{nowrap|Eastern Liberty Federal Savings & Loan<br />1170 21st Street, Northwest}}<br />Washington, D.C., U.S. | coordinates = {{Coord|38|54|14|N|77|2|42|W|display=inline}} | date = {{start date|1974|9|20}} | time = 10:30 a.m. | timezone = ET | type = Shooting | fatalities = Gail Cobb | injuries = | victims = | perps = John William Bryant (shooter)<br />John Curtis Dortch (accomplice) | susperps = | weapon = Handgun | numparts = | dfens = | motive = Bank robbery }}
At around 10:30 am on September 20, 1974, John Curtis Dortch, a 29-year-old Howard University graduate and former U.S. Army soldier from Silver Spring, Maryland,<ref name="Wilbanks"/> and John William Bryant, a 24-year-old man from Washington, D.C., began making their way to the Eastern Liberty Federal Savings and Loan bank at 21st and L Streets NW, disguised as construction workers, and each carrying a loaded sawed-off shotgun and handgun. They intended to rob the bank.<ref name="Wilbanks"/><ref name=McJackie /><ref name="RLSnow">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4FU0_jtVqMIC&q=%22John+William+Bryant%22+%22Cobb%22&pg=PA116|title=Policewomen Who Made History: Breaking through the Ranks|first=Robert L.|last=Snow|date=2010|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.|location=Lanham, Maryland|isbn=978-1-4422-0033-3|oclc=473120367|pages=113–115|access-date=July 31, 2014}}</ref>
Two plainclothes police officers were alerted of the robbery in advance, and saw the two men on the street. The officers stopped them and asked them for identification, before the would-be robbers could even get inside the bank. The two men ran off in separate directions. Cobb, who had graduated from the police academy only six months earlier, was still on probationary duty a block from the bank. Cobb, who was writing a traffic ticket at the time, was told by a citizen that they saw an armed man run into a garage. Cobb followed the suspect and confronted him inside the garage as he was in the process of changing out of his disguise. Cobb ordered the man to place his hands on the wall. As she called for assistance over her radio, the suspect spun around and fired a single gunshot at Cobb at close range. The bullet went through Cobb's wrist, shattering a wristwatch that was given to her by her mother as a birthday present, continued through her police radio, where it then penetrated her heart. Cobb died at the scene at 20th Street and L Street, NW, and responding officers arrested the suspect at the scene.<ref name="MPDC-Memorial"/><ref name=McJackie /><ref name=ODMP /><ref name="Wilbanks"/><ref name="RLSnow"/>
Gail Cobb served in Washington, D.C., the Nation's Capital, as a uniformed federal police officer of the Metropolitan Police Department for less than one year. She was the first female MPDC officer to be killed in the line of duty, as well as the first African American female law enforcement officer to be killed in the line of duty in the United States.<ref name="Wilbanks"/> She is buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland, near the border between Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland.<ref name="Wilbanks"/><ref name=McJackie /><ref name=ODMP>{{cite web|url=http://www.odmp.org/officer/3199-police-officer-gail-a.-cobb |title=Police Officer Gail A. Cobb |work=ODMP Remembers|author=Officer Down Memorial Page|publisher=Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc.|access-date=May 15, 2014}}</ref><ref name=NYT>{{cite news|title=Slain Policewoman Honored in Capital By 2,000 Officers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/25/archives/slain-policewoman-honored-in-capital-by-2000-officers.html|work=New York Times|location=New York|date=September 25, 1974|access-date=2009-08-04}}</ref>
===Funeral=== thumb|left|Cobb's casket being carried by pallbearers at her funeral in 1974 Cobb's funeral was ornate and large. Hundreds of police officers lined the street around the funeral venue, some coming all the way from Hawaii, all standing at attention.<ref name=McJackie /> Cobb was not buried in uniform.
The Mayor of the District of Columbia, dignitaries who attended the funeral, during which the U.S. President Gerald R. Ford who had to be elsewhere at the time, called for a moment of silence.<ref name="McJackie" />
==Legacy== Several weeks after Cobb's funeral, her parents began displaying a photograph of Cobb in her MPDC uniform, her police badge, a record of the music sung at her funeral, proclamations and letters from government officials, the uniform boots that Cobb had been wearing when she died and a letter from the president which commended Cobb for sacrificing her life. Given an entire section all to its own was a letter from U.S. President Gerald Ford, saying that Cobb "has our lasting admiration for the cause of law enforcement and the well-being of our society, a cause for which she made the highest sacrifice."<ref name=McJackie />
In 1975, John William Bryant was sentenced to 15 years to life imprisonment after being found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder. He was released on parole in 1992. The following year, in November 1993, he was arrested in Washington, D.C., for possessing crack cocaine and three bags of marijuana. However, a court ruled the cocaine and marijuana impermissible in court as the arresting officers did not have probable cause to believe that Bryant was committing a crime when they discovered them. In July 1997, the D.C. Parole Board revoked Bryant's parole for his possessing marijuana and cocaine, as well as testing positive for marijuana use. Bryant denied ever using marijuana. The D.C. Parole Board decided not to send Bryant back to prison, but rather to send him to an inpatient program for alcoholism treatment, much to the dismay of Cobb's relatives.<ref name="Wilbanks"/>
In 1996, John Curtis Dortch (born July 19, 1945), who was one of the key architects of the robbery that left Cobb dead, attempted to become a lawyer in West Virginia and Washington, D.C., after finishing a 15-year prison term for his being convicted of second-degree murder on July 30, 1975. After being released from prison on parole in 1989 for "good behavior",<ref name="Wilbanks"/> Dortch became active in church, helped out an AIDS patient, began tutoring and mentoring children, and started attending law school. Dortch, a graduate of Howard University and a former U.S. Army officer who served in the Vietnam War, was not the triggerman who shot Cobb, however, he attempted to appeal to the courts to allow him to become a lawyer, much to the dismay of Cobb's family and friends. In 1997, the West Virginia Supreme Court denied Dortch permission to practice law in the state in a unanimous 4-0 decision, to the praise of Cobb's surviving family members and friends. Dortch has since written an autobiography of his life, ''Memoirs of the Prodigal Son: the Road to Redemption, Fifteen Years in Prison and Beyond'', released in September 2008.<ref name=B-More-Sun /><ref name=AmazonBook>{{cite book|title=''Memoirs of the Prodigal Son: the Road to Redemption, Fifteen Years in Prison and Beyond''|publisher=Disciple Publishing Company|first=John Curtis|last=Dortch|edition=1|isbn=978-0615237633|date=September 10, 2008}}</ref><ref name=WVSC>{{cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1997/04/15/wva-court-denies-man-convicted-of-murder-permission-to-practice-law/|title=W.Va. court denies man convicted of murder permission to practice law|last=O'Brien|first=Dennis|work=The Baltimore Sun|date=April 15, 1997|access-date=December 21, 2012}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Biography|Law|United States}} *List of American police officers killed in the line of duty
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Gail A. Cobb|Gail Cobb}} * [https://www.odmp.org/officer/3199-police-officer-gail-a-cobb Gail Cobb] at the ''Officer Down Memorial Page'' * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031120123252/http://www.mcjackie.com/cobb.html |date=November 20, 2003 |title=Gail Cobb at ''Jackie McElroy'' }} * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302231209/http://mpdc.dc.gov/page/memorial-gail-cobb |date=March 2, 2014 |title=Memorial to Gail Cobb }} at the ''Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobb, Gail Adrienne}} Category:1950 births Category:1974 deaths Category:People murdered in 1974 Category:American police officers killed in the line of duty Category:American women police officers Category:Deaths by firearm in Washington, D.C. Category:Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia officers Category:Murdered African-American people Category:Law enforcement officials from Washington, D.C. Category:People murdered in Washington, D.C. Category:20th-century African-American women Category:20th-century African-American people Category:20th-century American women civil servants Category:20th-century United States government officials Category:20th-century American police officers