Tulsa Police Officer Retires, Headed Overseas

A Tulsa Police officer, who was shot in the line of duty, is retiring at the end of this month after 27 years on the force. <br/><br/>Steve Downie was one of two officers shot during an ambush in a downtown

Friday, August 18th 2006, 10:44 am

By: News On 6

A Tulsa Police officer, who was shot in the line of duty, is retiring at the end of this month after 27 years on the force.

Steve Downie was one of two officers shot during an ambush in a downtown Tulsa alley in 1996. The other officer, Dick Hobson was killed, Downie survived.

As News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright says Downie is now taking his police skills overseas.

Steve Downie is a man of few words. Those who know him describe him as loveably grumpy, but also the most loyal of friends and a person you'd want to watch your back. He was 16 years old when he decided he wanted to be a police officer.

Tulsa Police Officer Steve Downie: "Didn't want a boring job and wanted to do different jobs and wanted to keep the same place of employment."

His job as an officer has taken him from a patrol car to horseback to working with a K9 partner. Most recently, he's been assigned to a couple of high profile specialty units, the serial rapist task force and now, the bullet trap squad. That squad gets the most violent criminals, armed robbers and gang members off the streets. "It feels good, that's what keeps people motivated to do it."

Downie was a K9 officer on June 10th of 1996 when he and fellow officer Dick Hobson and a K9 searched an alley near Second and Greenwood for a suspect. Stephen Williams jumped out with a shotgun and ambushed them. Hobson was killed and Downie was shot in the thigh, he still has 195 pellets in his leg. He says the hardest part of all was Dick's funeral. "It's something you think about every day in one way or another, at one time or another."

Officer Downie doesn't believe his career as a street cop deserves any special mention, but many citizens will not forget that he took a bullet and lost a friend, while working to keep their streets safe.

Officer Downie plans to go to Kosovo this fall to train police officers for a year. After that, he wants to come home, get another horse, do some roping and enjoy a slower pace of life.