Fort Worth Inc.
Flowers and a Thin Blue Line Flag for mourners to leave condolences were part of a memorial outside the police sector on Monday.
Fort Worth Police Sgt. Billy Randolph has left us, but in his wake is a legacy as the quintessence of servant leadership.
Logan Bidding, a seven-year veteran of the Fort Worth Police Department who worked under Randolph as a patrol officer, recalls looking for a suspect wanted on a warrant for a violent crime. He couldn’t recall exactly what, but “like aggravated assault or something like that.”
Randolph and Bidding stopped a guy who looked like their suspect in the Felix Street area south of downtown. It turned out not to be the guy.
“We could have just left it at that,” Bidding said. “But I remember Sgt. Randolph stopped to talk to him and he found out he wasn't really from around here, and he didn't really have any winter clothes. Sgt. Randolph picked the guy up and he took him to Walmart because it was open at the time. And he bought the guy a winter coat and he bought him a couple outfits out of his own pocket. I don't know how many people were there to witness it, but I saw it, and he didn't have to do it.”
Tend the flock of God in your midst, [overseeing] not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly. Do not lord it over those assigned to you but be examples to the flock.
Tributes continued to pour in a day after the sudden death of Randolph, a 29-year veteran of the department who was killed after being struck by a car allegedly driven by 25-year-old DeAujalae Evans. Evans, police say, entered Interstate 35 on a southbound exit driving the wrong way.
Randolph's celebration of life will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Christ Chapel Bible Church in Fort Worth.
Police suspect that Evans was intoxicated. Authorities are waiting on the results of a blood draw to confirm their suspicions.
Evans is being held on a charge of intoxication manslaughter of a peace officer. The story came clearer into focus through reporting by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which discovered that Evans is on probation for a conviction of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Fort Worth Police Department
Sgt. Billy Randolph served on the department for almost 30 years.
Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker both expressed outrage at what they called a lenient sentence in a “society that demands zero accountability for those who commit violent and dangerous crimes,” Ramirez said on X.
“The Randolph family is without a son, father, husband, grandfather and friend today because of deadly behavior and unwarranted leniency in our justice system,” Parker wrote on X.
On Tuesday, police escorted Randolph’s remains from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office to Mount Olivet Funeral Home. The procession stretched from St. Louis Avenue to Magnolia Avenue, to Hemphill Street, down to West Lancaster Avenue, and right on University Drive. The procession continued down Jacksboro Highway and to the funeral home and cemetery on North Sylvania Avenue.
Assist The Officer Fort Worth is accepting donations in memory of Randolph for his family.
Randolph was working the “midnight” shift, 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., and was among officers who responded about 2:30 a.m. to a crash and fire involving an 18-wheeler on Interstate 35 southbound, near Sycamore School Road.
He was standing outside his vehicle when police allege that Evans drove a 2020 Nissan Versa through the accident scene hours later, at 5:30 a.m., and struck Randolph while driving the wrong way, heading northbound in the southbound lanes.
In addition to his service with the Fort Worth Police Department, Randolph also served four years in the United States Air Force.
“His genuine kindness touched many lives,” said Officer Jimmy Pollozani on his social media platform on Facebook.
Other colleagues recalled his strong handshake and warm hugs. “He was a sweet man,” another said.
Bidding, a U.S. Marine, worked in the South Division for about three years under Randolph.
Bidding, 32, corrected me when I referred to Randolph as his “boss.” Randolph wasn’t a boss. A boss, he tendered, is one of those people who sit behind a desk and order instructions. Randolph was, Bidding said, “a leader.”
“I don’t think they make a desk that could have kept Billy Randolph behind it for any meaningful period of time,” Bidding said.
Randolph was always in the field doing field work, Bidding said. He operated that way until his last day. The first to come to work, and the last to leave, all in support of his guys.
“I guess everybody's got one of those kinds of people in their field,” Bidding said, at this point now just managing to compose himself to speak. “They're the guys that show up to work every day. They don't complain. They're the best at what they do. And you measure yourself against them.
“When you think of Billy Randolph, he was a cop's cop. Billy Randolph was a cop, and if you imagine a cop, you imagine Billy Randolph. And I don't know if you've ever heard the idiom, ‘Often imitated but never duplicated.’ I think that was the best way I could describe Billy Randolph, there's only ever going to be one Billy Randolph.”