John Jefferson
Family and peers of one of the Virginia police officers killed in the line of duty on Friday night described the expectant father as a “breath of fresh air,” who was willing to put his life on the line to serve and protect his community.
Officers Cameron Girvin, 25, and Christopher Reese, 30, were shot and killed by convicted felon John McCoy III during a traffic stop in Virginia Beach.
After being pulled over for an expired license plate, McCoy shot the pair with a pistol. While they were on the ground “defenseless,” he shot them each a second time, leading to their subsequent deaths at local hospitals, according to Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate.
McCoy was later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
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Family members said Girvin, who started working for the department in 2020, wanted to be a police officer since he was 5 years old while growing up in the upstate New York town of Gates.
Girvin’s biological grandmother, Barbara Girvin, who raised him and was known to him as his mother, told Fox News Digital that as a child, when he had a chance to dress up for school or Halloween, he always donned the iconic police uniform.
He continued to pursue a law enforcement career, taking a criminal justice class in his freshman year of high school at Gates Chili High School.
“By the time he got to his senior year, he went to classes downtown in the sheriff’s office, and he experienced work in the courthouse,” Barbara Girvin said.
While in high school, he aided local law enforcement agencies with undercover stings, since he looked old for his age, and participated in ride alongs.
Joshua Bowman, a former Gates Police Department investigator, told Fox News Digital he first met Cameron at a nearby Starbucks, where he was working as a barista in high school.
“He was always smiling, always energetic, and very polite to every single customer,” Bowman said. “After some time, he started asking me questions about being a police officer in New York.”
He later interned with the Gates Police Department.
“He was the only intern that I’ve ever seen in 24 years that showed up on every ride along with a business suit on,” Bowman said. “If he saw an arrest here on the news, he would ask me about it. Like, tell me more. He seemed so interested in it, and when he did the ride alongs, the politeness and eagerness really stood out. He was a breath of fresh air.”
Barbara Girvin called him “Mr. Neat,” noting he always had to have on a clean shirt and his hair “just so.”
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Bowman said he still remembers the young man telling him he got into the police academy and was traveling south to become an officer.
“I was just so encouraged,” he said. “I was like, ‘You’re going to make it. You’re going to make your family proud.’ He seemed to be a gem and if he stayed in New York, I would hope that our office would have picked him up.”
After graduating, Girvin applied for and received offers from two law enforcement agencies — Texas Border Patrol and the Virginia Beach Police Department.
After finding out he got both jobs on the same day, he decided to go to Virginia, because it was closer to his family in Gates.
“He just knew what he wanted, and he was going to go after it,” his mother said. “When he went to Virginia, he was extremely happy because he was doing something that he loved. He loved his job. He loved the people he worked with.”
Soon after moving to Virginia, he married his high school sweetheart, Jessica.
The couple eloped on the beach during the COVID-19 pandemic, but renewed their vows in front of friends and family about two years ago at Oaks Manor in Churchville, New York.
Officer Girvin’s wife, Jessica, is currently pregnant with their first child and is due in the summer, and she is working with Reese’s wife to plan the joint police funeral in Virginia Beach.
“She’s so emotionally distraught,” Barbara Girvin said.
The family added Reese and his wife married just last month.
Following the tragedy, the family said it is remembering Officer Girvin for his outgoing personality and willingness to come to anyone’s rescue.
“If anybody needed any help, he was the first one there. He never hesitated at all,” Barbara Girvin said. “If somebody needed someone to talk to, he would sit and talk to them. He was a good listener.”
She added he was a “jokester” and had so many friends growing up, that she would have to set up tents in the backyard to accommodate sleepovers.
Following his death, she said fellow officers described him as the “life of the party.”
Coming from a family of civil servants and police officers, his mother said he knew the risks that came with the job. However, he was not deterred.
“When he saw that police officers passed in the line of duty, he would kind of investigate to see what had happened, but it didn’t deter him from wanting to be one or wanting to continue,” she said. “His top priority was serving. … He was very interested in keeping his community safe and doing what he could do to help them.”
Bowman, himself a 24-year law enforcement veteran, explained that traffic stops are “never routine” and there is no way to know what the person’s mental state will be.
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Even though officers approach the instances with the utmost safety, he said things can still go awry.
“When you pull someone over, you do not know how their day is going,” he said. “You do not know what is happening in their life and what they’re going through. … I believe traffic stops are one of the most dangerous aspects of law enforcement.
Bowman added that Girvin had a long-lasting impact, not only on his brothers and sisters in Virginia Beach, but also back home in New York.
“I hope I led him in the right direction,” he said. “I told him, ‘It’s the best career path you’ll ever choose.’ But unfortunately, there’s evil in this world that walks among us, and unfortunately for him, he met that evil. It’s not fair. Not fair at all.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, a GoFundMe created to support the Girvin family had raised more than $70,000.
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