Thomas S. Harrison Jr. doesn't talk much about himself, but he talks volumes about the son he loves and deeply misses.

His son Tommy loved his family, working on old cars, traditional Christmas morning breakfasts and even slithery snakes. While Harrison and his son had their share of little spats, Tommy's smiling warmth and charming wit could melt the most hardened heart, he says.

Tommy also had a deep love for his job as a sergeant with the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety; however, it was what happened to him while performing his duties as a dedicated community servant that shattered Harrison's heart into a million pieces.

'Tommy found his place'

Sgt. Tommy Harrison was murdered in the line of duty on Jan. 15, 1993, by 18-year-old Alabama native Thomas Ivey. Shot several times with a .357 Magnum pistol with rounds piercing his leg, right arm, chest, liver, hip, heart and thigh, Harrison was pronounced dead at the Regional Medical Center.

It was a pronouncement his father will never forget.

"Do we miss him? Of course. Does time ameliorate the feeling? Yes, it does. But the thing that k.jpg it before us is our n.jpgication from the attorney general's office about what's happening with Thomas Ivey. We think he has now had his last appeal," Harrison said. "In fact, we don't think the last appeal will be granted, but we're not sure yet."

He said his son found his place when he joined the police force.

"I had bought an insurance agency in St. Matthews for him and his wife, Shaye. They started with it for four years and increased the business 50 percent in that time. He walked in one day and said, 'I don't like it,'" Harrison said, noting that Tommy then expressed a desire to join the police force.

"I said, 'Why?' His comment was, 'I think I can help,' and I didn't have an answer for that. He found the brotherhood that he thoroughly enjoyed when he joined the police force, and I think he did his job well," Harrison said.

"In my mind, he gave the other fellow the opportunity to save face as much as he could while doing his job. That's the kind of person he was and, as a man, I think he was respected on both sides of the law," he said.

Harrison noted that the holidays this year brought back memories of a fine son who loved -- and was often the first to feast on -- the pudding, grits, cheese and other fare of the family's Christmas breakfast.

"Tommy loved Christmas. We could always expect that blue-and-white to pull up in the yard even if he was on duty on Christmas morning. We always put a small, redecorated Christmas tree on his grave. That's an every-year occurrence," Harrison said.

"Two weeks, probably less, before he was killed, he and I were talking about the character of crime in Orangeburg and how it's changing. His comment to me that morning was, 'Dad, the time is not far when a policeman will be killed in Orangeburg.' I don't know why he felt that. He didn't elaborate, but it was just a matter of discussing how crime was changing in our city," Harrison said. "I never suspected that it would be him, but I also never expected that it would happen. It was right prophetic."

'Orangeburg took us in their arms'

More than 2,000 people packed into First Baptist Church to pay their last respects to Tommy Harrison, including innumerable law enforcement officers who crowded into the church's upper and lower levels and the choir area.

"The people of Orangeburg took us in their arms, and we were just overwhelmed at the caring concern and support that they gave us," said Harrison, who recalled a greeted he received from by a young African-American couple during a visit to Tommy's grave site.

"The girl said, 'He was my friend.' They had one vase and one rose bud that they were placing among all the flowers that were there. That, too, is a testament to how people felt about Tommy," he said.

Those words were also the inspiration behind the inscription on a monument erected in the fallen officer's honor. The monument is located on Memorial Plaza in downtown Orangeburg and was made possible through the efforts of the group People Against Crime, which was formed by Tris Waystack, a then-14-year-old member of Boy Scout Troop 45, and his family following Tommy's death.

On the monument is a depiction of a child handing a police officer a single flower and the simple inscription: "Because he is my friend."

Tommy Harrison's wife, Shaye, died in December 1999 and is now buried next to her husband in Orangeburg's Sunnyside Cemetery. Tommy also has a son, T.J., from a previous marriage.

"She (Shaye) had asked me if she could be buried next to Tommy, and we had agreed," Harrison said. T.J. now lives in Lexington and is the father of two girls, with a son on the way.

"He's doing great," Harrison said.

'I accept where we are'

Thomas Ivey, the convicted triggerman in Tommy Harrison's death, is currently awaiting execution on Death Row. In addition to Tommy's murder at the Belk-Hudson Department Store in the Prince of Orange Mall, Ivey was also convicted of the murder of 30-year-old businessman Robert Montgomery, who Ivey shot in the head following a carjacking less than two weeks before the Harrison murder.

"Thomas Ivey still faces execution in South Carolina. He is currently housed in the state's Maximum Security Unit at Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia," said Josh Gelinas, communications director for the state Department of Corrections.

Mark Plowden, communications director at the attorney general's office, said an execution date for Ivey, which had been set for Dec. 28, has been stayed in part because of pending petitions.

"On the Harrison conviction, Ivey has a second PCR (post-conviction relief petition) currently pending in the state Supreme Court. On the Montgomery case, Ivey currently has a Habeas plea pending in Federal District Court," Plowden said. "The 12/28 execution date has subsequently been stayed by both the state Supreme Court and the federal court."

"We were advised by the attorney general's office that this had occurred. They didn't know how the request for a new trial would come out. They did not think he would granted be a new trial," Harrison said. "It's really a tragedy. (He was a) young man ... when it happened. He had a big gun in his pocket. (He) felt like he was king of the hill, I guess."

Harrison, who turned 82 on Jan. 1, said he has personally found the ability to forgive.

"I have come to terms in my mind and heart that nothing can be changed. I no longer have the fire that says he needs to be put away. If they desired to commute his sentence, it would not create a problem in my mind. If they choose to execute him, that would be the prerogative of the state," he said, noting that his initial anger over his son's death has been tempered by his faith and the support of his wife, Jean.

"We remember it (his son's death) on the 15th anniversary. We'll remember it every day. I was angry, but ... judgment is going to be made one way or the other, in my mind, whether in this life or the next," Harrison said.

"I accept where we are and, as I have told Jean and others, life is for the living. You have to go on and do what you have to do."

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

You must be logged in to comment.