Ever since he was a boy, David Longbehn wanted to be a policeman, "and not just any policeman," he said, but a member of the St. Paul Police Department.
And, so, on Wednesday night, as he continued his recovery from a horrific encounter Saturday, and prepared to attend another officer's funeral today, he itched to be on the streets, on the force. "If I could go back to work tonight or tomorrow, I'd be ready to go," he said.
Longbehn was manning a police perimeter on the city's East Side on Saturday when Jason Jones, 21, the suspected killer of Maplewood police Sgt. Joe Bergeron, approached and then cracked him in the face with a cloth-covered bolt as he was being frisked.
The two men fought; Longbehn shot Jones several times; Jones died at the scene.
Because a grand jury has yet to review his actions, Longbehn could not discuss the shooting Wednesday night. He insisted, however, that he was there not to talk so much about himself, but to honor Bergeron, whom he described as "the real hero here."
Forever, he acknowledged, they will be linked, but it was Longbehn who has "the benefit to stand here and say that I'm healing and I'm getting better and I'm still here today," he said. "This is nothing. I am so lucky to be standing here with just this."
ANTHONY LONETREE
