Kelvin Ansari Jr. remembers the last telephone call he had with his hero dad, just hours before he died.
The lessons of life Sgt. Ansari Sr, of the Savannah Police Department, shared with his son, just hours before he died: “Remember, your reputation precedes you.”
“He was in uniform—with the Army, then the police department—all my life,” Kelvin Jr. told Fox News. “We were comfortable with it. He fought in different wars. We saw him as Superman. His whole tenure, I don’t remember any close calls. We were used to him always returning.”
When you suddenly lose someone, you instantly regret the missed opportunities you had to get closer to that person.
“I wish I had reached out to him more,” his son said, “that I had made more of an effort. I have found out that he also wanted to start reaching out to me more. I was busy, he was busy. I was the child who had left the South and moved away. I think of all the things I never got a chance to do with him, like travel, have a real vacation with my dad. He loved to travel. That’s why my last conversation with him hurts so much.”
He added: “We played phone tag for a long time before we finally got to have that last conversation, and the words he said to me, ‘Remember, your reputation precedes you,’ permeate through me.”
“My dad was just approaching the car and this guy just hopped out of the car and shot my dad,” he said, remembering the fateful day of May 11, 2019.
Officer, Robbery Suspect Dead in Coastal Georgia: Officials
A robbery suspect fatally shot a police officer in the Georgia port city of Savannah and wounded the officer’s colleague before fleeing and ultimately being fatally shot by another officer, authorities said on May 12.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said 50-year-old Savannah Police Sgt. Kelvin Ansari and 49-year-old robbery suspect Edward Fuller III, were both pronounced dead at the hospital where they were taken Saturday evening after being shot.
The Savannah Police Department website said Ansari and Officer Douglas Thomas had answered a robbery call the evening of May 11. The statement said after the officers located and approached the a vehicle, the suspect fired on the officers, striking both.
Later, Fuller was spotted emerging from a backyard shed and pointed a handgun at officers. He was then shot by an officer. The handgun used by Fuller was recovered and determined to have been stolen, the statement added.
A Savannah Police Department statement said Ansari joined the department in 2008. It said Ansari also had previously served 21 years in the U.S. Army.
Savannah’s police chief said they had turned the shooting investigation over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
Associated Press contributed to this report
