SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In the early morning hours of June 20, city leaders gathered at Sacramento Police headquarters to share the tragic news that 26-year-old Officer Tara O’Sullivan had died of her gunshot wounds.
“This had nothing to do with her being a woman. It had to do with her being a hero,” Sacramento Mayor Pro Tem and District 1 Councilwoman Angelique Ashby told a somber crowd of journalists.
In the wake of O'Sullivan's death, Ashby wants to send a message: O'Sullivan did not die because she was a woman, and neither did fallen Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona, 22, who was killed in the line of duty back in January.
ABC10 sat down with Ashby on Thursday, to revisit the words she shared that night and ask what comes next for the city.
“I just want to make sure that folks understand neither one of those women died because of their gender,” Ashby said. “They died because of their career choice, because they chose to be heroes, because they chose to be the type of women who show up in the moment when people need them most.”
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Leaders in the city and wider region have made a concerted effort to recruit more women to law enforcement, “to create more balance and diversity across those departments,” Ashby said.
But that means people will start seeing more women officers get shot.
“Women are going to be involved in every aspect of public safety, and that includes tragedy,” Ashby said. “So we need to prepare our hearts for these things to happen sometimes... we also want to take every precaution possible to make sure that folks are well-trained.”
Ashby said she didn’t plan on speaking at that media conference in the early morning June 20, but when somebody implied a connection between Corona and O’Sullivan being women and dying on the job, she knew she had to come forward and say something.
She spoke powerfully for just 72 seconds, but she left an impact on those in the room and people watching the live-streams all over the country.
“There was no one more prepared to take the streets and defend our city than Tara O’Sullivan,” she told ABC10. “People have said, ‘If there were more Taras, you know, then people would feel more connected.’ She really does embody the type of new, young energy coming into the department.”
Both O’Sullivan and Corona show what kind of strong, energetic contributions women can make to a police department, Ashby said.
“I hope that young women everywhere, in seeing Tara and Natalie…see a piece of themselves, and rather than fearing law enforcement or fearing the profession, that they move towards it and see that there’s a place for them there, too,” Ashby said. “If Tara can do it, so can other girls, and I hope that they will.”
On June 22 – three days after O’Sullivan’s death – the Sacramento Police Department held a hiring workshop and had record turnout. Of the approximately 50 people who showed up to learn more about working as a police officer for Sac PD, almost a fifth of them were women.
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