PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — In loving memory of 22nd District police officer Sgt. Robert Wilson III, family and former colleagues on Tuesday sent dozens of green and yellow balloons soaring into the sky above a mural of the fallen officer at South 60th Street and Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia.
Wilson was shot and killed nine years ago at a West Lehigh Avenue GameStop store, where he was buying a present for one of his sons. Those boys are now 9 and 18 years old. Wilson would have been 40 this year.
“The pain never stops,” said Wilson’s stepmother, Diane Harris. “The grief comes in waves.”
Harris says the day her stepson died feels like just yesterday — and she’s thankful for the annual ceremony. Balloon release ceremonies are done annually for departed members of the Philadelphia Police Department.
“You know, I know that it’s just balloons, but it almost feels like he can see it,” she said. “You look up in the air — and I just said, ‘You know, I love you, Robbie.’ As if he could hear me.”
His sister, Shaki’ra Wilson-Burroughs, says it doesn’t feel to her like nine years have passed.
“It's hard every day, it's hard — but this day definitely takes a different toll on all of us,” she said.
She was just a month shy of two years older than her brother, and she says they were extremely close.
“And there's times where I want to call him, you know, just to tell him, like — hey, I saw certain sites, or hey, this movie came out or this song goes out, and I can't pick up the phone and say that.”
Wilson’s younger brother, Dareon Wilson, says extended family from New Jersey usually come into Philly to join them on this day. He says, together, they remember his brother’s legacy.
“It's okay to cry. Just don't think of all the negativity. Think of all the positivity. Remember the smiles, all the laughs he gave us and all that — the only way you push through it.”
Philadelphia police Capt. Michael Goodson acknowledged the challenges of the job and emphasized the dangers of law enforcement.
“We understand that law enforcement is a or can be deemed as a thankless job sometimes. But for all of us standing here it is nothing else that we would rather do than to serve and to protect,” he said.
“We can never forget the men and women who gave their lives for the Police Department. We should never forget.”