Beech Grove police officer Brian Elliott was a playful and wily friend who once convinced his buddy to place a fake ticket on the car of a woman he was dating — a successful prank to woo her.
He could talk for hours about modifications he’d made to his car or about whether a hot dog was, in fact, a sandwich, recalled his best friend and colleague, Joshua Shrum. He was also a cigar aficionado who, at first, knew little about cigars but still agreed to form a club he later led as vice president.
He was a loving partner who, just as he was about to propose, wanted to make sure he was everything his future wife wanted him to be.
Elliott’s family, friends and colleagues prefer that he be remembered that way: How he lived and not how he died.
At work, Elliott was a “go-getter” who chose the busiest shift, said Beech Grove Police Chief Michael Maurice said. He volunteered to work at various community events and strove to lead his units to success.
Yet, Elliott was never one to brag or seek the spotlight. That his Feb. 23 funeral service was held in the community he served and not in a large stadium in downtown Indianapolis is a testament to the officer’s humility, Beech Grove Mayor James Coffman told the hundreds of police officers from Indiana and elsewhere who gathered at the gym of Beech Grove High School, Elliott’s alma mater. The officers had pinned a white carnation with a red dot to their shirts, sitting upside down near their badges. This signifies a life well-lived by Elliott, and bloodshed while serving.
The funeral service was followed by a procession that passed the Beech Grove Police Department, where snow blanketed a memorial of flowers and stuffed toys arranged around Elliott’s patrol car. About 50 residents gathered outside the police station, despite intermittent snow flurries and bone-chilling winds, to pay their respects.
Just before the procession headed north to Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, badge No. 59 was declared 10-42, signifying the end of Elliott’s watch.
The town’s mayor remembers the beginning of that watch.
Elliott, who spent six years at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, joined the Beech Grove police force on April 8, 2024. Coffman was a new mayor who had just sworn in his first officer that day: Elliott. The need for him to be sworn in was urgent: His first day as an officer coincided with the day of the total solar eclipse, and it was all hands on deck at the police department.
“Being a police officer was Brian’s calling. This was so much more than a job to him,” Coffman said. “… He showed up and gave his all, and he did it with a smile.”
‘Let’s remember his smile’
Shrum recalled a grueling shift when Elliott was new to the force. Although Elliott had cut his hand that day, his first instinct was to look at his partner and say, “Hey Shrum, are you OK?”
“He was the guy that would help you out without hesitation. The guy that would sit with you in silence if that’s what you needed,” Shrum said, his voice breaking. “He didn’t need credit. He just needed to know that the people he loved were OK.”
In the lobby outside the high school gym were tables with memorabilia highlighting Elliott’s life and interests. There was a humidor full of cigars next to a picture of Elliott with fellow members of the Circle City Cigar Club. A Metallica hat honored Elliott’s favorite band, lying on a table next to a bottle of Skrewball peanut butter-flavored whiskey.
One photo shows Elliott in a gray suit, kneeling next to his wife and their dog. Her light-blue dress matched the dog’s collar and the boutonniere pinned to Elliott’s suit.
Before the service began, Erin Elliott thanked the officers who had her husband’s back during patrols. Those who monitored his health during his final hours at Eskenazi Hospital. And those who stood at attention at the doors of the high school for the funeral.
“Let’s remember his smile and his silliness,” she said as she wiped away tears. “If you partake, have a cigar in his honor sometime this week.”
Elliott graduated from Beech Grove High School in 2011 and studied criminal justice at what was then called Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, according to his obituary. His family has made Pepper’s Pals Cat Rescue, a nonprofit organization that rescues vulnerable cats and kittens, the designated charity for donations to be made in his memory. Elliott and his wife had adopted their own cat, a female named Soup, through the organization.
Outside the police station, Chrissy Adams and her loved ones were the first to arrive to watch the funeral procession. The group stood across the street, huddled together with blankets and warm drinks in hand.
“We came to just show our community support for our fallen heroes,” Adams said. “We’re Beech Grove business owners, and we’re trying to show as much support as we can.”
Beech Grove police chief calls for accountability
Elliott was shot shortly before 6 p.m. on Feb. 16, 2016, when he and another officer responded to a domestic disturbance at an apartment complex in the 100 block of Diplomat Court in Beech Grove. Elliott heard a woman’s screams, kicked open the door, and the two officers were immediately met with gunfire.
Maurice, the police chief, remembers clearly the moment he learned that two of his officers had been shot. He knew the officers working that day. He’d hired them, trained with them, watched them on runs and seen their body cameras as they interacted with the public.
“There is no playbook, no policy and no amount of training that can prepare you when your officers call you telling you that you have not one, but two, officers shot,” Maurice said.
Maurice said Elliott and the other officer, who was injured and whose name has not been released, answered “a cry for help” without hesitation, “unaware there was an ambush on the other side of that door.”
The officer who was injured immediately began evacuating and rendering aid to Elliott. Others who were on duty arrived and loaded the two wounded officers into patrol vehicles.
“At no point did they retreat. At no point did they leave Officer Elliott’s side. They didn’t wait to make sure it was safe before they tried to save Brian. Why?” he said, stopping for a long pause as he choked back tears. “Because Officer Elliott was one of them … They knew Officer Elliott would not have left them.”
Kenneth Terrell Johnson, 47, has been charged for Elliott’s death. Investigators allege that he held the woman captive in the apartment. After the shooting, he escaped out of a back patio door and scaled down from a third-floor balcony, according to court records. He was arrested hours later after a resident spotted him hiding in a nearby laundry room at the apartment complex. A Glock 43X 9mm handgun was found in a trash can nearby, according to court documents.
Johnson, who’s been charged with six counts, is facing life imprisonment. Prosecutors are weighing whether to pursue the death penalty.
Maurice called for a nationwide reckoning about how the criminal justice system has dealt with repeat offenders, so they don’t commit more crimes. He said although officers have been most scrutinized the past five years, attention must shift to county prosecutors and the court system.
Johnson has a criminal history from other states.
“It is time to hold accountable those who hold a propensity for violence,” Maurice said, “so that they cannot assault or kill another innocent victim.”
The procession ended in front of the Heroes of Public Safety memorial at Crown Hill Cemetery. Officers marched carrying a bevy of flags, including one with a thin blue line, preceding a Pipes and Drums Band with bagpipes. A long total silence followed a rifle salute.
Eight officers folded a flag draped across Elliott’s casket as a light flurry of snowflakes drifted to the ground. One officer handed the flag to Elliott’s wife. Then, one by one, they placed their white carnation flower on the casket as the band played “Amazing Grace.”
IndyStar reporters Ryan Murphy and Katie Wiseman contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Smiles, cigars and service: The life of Beech Grove officer Brian Elliott
Reporting by Jordan Smith, Jade Jackson, Domenica Bongiovanni and Kristine Phillips, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
