Sergeant Earl Lucien Alfred

I was the 16 year old kid placing items for sale in front of Roses Dept. Store when I saw Sgt. Alfred arrive and get out a clip board as he looked at Chandler's Jewelry. I returned with more stock to see a woman covered in blood begging for my help. I went in and told my boss, Mr. Osgood, to call emergency. He did not want me to go out again for my safety but when I saw her climb into the policeman's car to drive herself to the hospital, I asked that I be punched off the clock and quit so as not to involve my employer. I got what I feared would be her dying declaration about a man who stabbed her. I then saw a man run from the alley to the A&P grocery on the other side of Roses. Men came out and said a trucker saw a cop down in the alley. I went back with them and saw Sgt. Alfred dead as a policeman in a wagon arrived. He said he could not leave the scene so I got an A&P manager to help me take a gurney from the police wagon to the front to aid the bleeding woman. Finally an ambulance arrived with more police and I went back to work in the Roses stock room trying to keep busy as I doubled over in pain from the flashbacks every 15 minutes. Slidell detectives tracked me down at work hours later but I was so sorry that I did not hear anything from the stock room and only saw what I described above. I was told details of the crime. When I returned to work some days later I was told the murderer escaped custody. He had hidden out in my town of Pearlington until a relative convinced him to surrender.

My grandfather was shot to death in a fight over a personal matter with an off-duty deputy in Bear Town McComb, MS when my dad was 12 and dad was taken to the morgue to i.d. his father. I know how horrible violence affects survivors and I wish Sgt. Alfred's family peace and pride in knowing that even in my brief seeing him as the last person other than his murderer to see him alive, he was obviously a man of poise, dignity, and professionalism. Peace.

civilian humanist
Last person, other than the perp. to see this beautiful man alive

May 10, 2024