CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In a quiet corner of the Timber Ridge Apartments, in east Charlotte, a simple cross of brick and flowers marks the place where Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers Jeff Shelton and Sean Clark were killed 10 years ago.
Stephen McMickens and his mother, Stella McMickens, were there that night, and 10 years later the memories are still fresh and painful.
“You see that (memorial); I see them. That’s why I don’t come down here,” Stephen told Channel 9 as he walked toward the memorial. “I saw two humans. I saw somebody suffering that needed me.”
When he got to where Clark and Shelton lay that night, Stephen tried to stop their bleeding, and he took Shelton’s hand and pleaded with him to hang on.
“I was like, ‘Please don't leave me,’” he said.
Moments later though, Shelton squeezed his hand and then let go, he said.
Stella had run to get some towels, but by the time she got back the area was swarming with police officers, and they would not let her get close to where Shelton and Clark lay.
Three years later, a jury convicted Demetrious Montgomery in both murders. Montgomery is now serving life in prison.
But at the Timber Ridge Apartments, life has gone on without the two officers who died there.
“Years ago I called them our everyday heroes,” Stella said.
[ IMAGES: Tribute for CMPD officers killed in the line of duty 10 years ago ]
Heroes whose sacrifice changed the community and the people who remembered them.
“There was a dark cloud over this neighborhood,” Stephen said. “So when this happened it was like a healing stage, you could feel the cloud lift. You could see all these different people, all different colors and religions in our community, hugged up with us.”
“I just feel like they have made a difference,” added Stella. “We'll always remember them. Their spirits will never die, and I feel like they're standing right here with us because they have become as the angels. They're with us always.”
It was a bond that ran deep.
Jon Rainier, a young cop from Ohio, and Jeff Shelton, from a small town east of Charlotte met at CMPD’s training academy and became fast friends.
“Yeah, we were good. We were good,” Rainier said as he sat in an interview room of the Rock Hill Police Department.
Rainier still works with the York County task force, ten years after his best friend was shot and killed answering a call in east Charlotte.
When Shelton was married, Rainier was his best man.
When Shelton was killed, he spoke at the funeral, breaking down in tears as he talked about losing his best friend.
It has haunted him ever since.
“After Jeff and Sean's funeral, you hear about another cop dying in the line of duty from some violent encounter, and it just kind of brings everything back, and makes you numb again,” he said. “You never become desensitized to a cop dying, especially when it's someone close.”
Rainier is now a sergeant, and making a career of law enforcement, even if Shelton’s murder did give him some second thoughts.
“For me to say it didn't cross my mind [to quit] for a brief second, I'd be a liar,” he said. "And then you realize you do it for the people that don't know you, then you do it for your family and for the other officers to your left and to your right. And quite frankly I felt that if I quit, I was doing Jeff a disservice.”