You could say that Deputy Charles Phill, with the Shoreline Police Department, was in the right place at the right time.
This past year Phill intervened in two dramatic domestic violence cases, and made a difference.
In one case, he was investigating a run-away call when he noticed something strange.
“I was walking around the home in the dark when I looked in the window and saw a man choking a woman and punching her in the head,” he said.
“The woman was screaming for help, then, amazingly enough, the man let her go so she could go to the bathroom. We went in and arrested the man for domestic violence. The woman was in the bathroom trying to climb out the window.”
Because Phill was in the right place at the right time, that man is now in jail.
In another instance this past year, Phill saw a woman running up Aurora waving down cars. One car stopped and she jumped in.
“I pulled the car over to find out what was going on, and the woman had bruises all over her face. We went back to her apartment and I found the man that did it and arrested him,” Phill said.
That man is also serving time in jail.
Because of these cases, Phill was recently recognized with the county’s 2002 Law Enforcement Professionalism Award for doing outstanding work against domestic violence.
He’s humble about the award though, saying only, “In both of those cases, I was just on patrol — at the right place at the right time.”
Phill, a Los Angeles native, said he always wanted to be a cop, even back in high school. He has a Bachelor’s degree in criminology and a Master’s in criminal justice administration.
For four years he served as a military police officer in the U.S. Air Force. He’s been serving as a patrol deputy with the Shoreline Police Department for two of the three years he’s been with the King County Sheriff’s Office. In that time, he’s been the school resource officer at Echo Lake Elementary School and is currently teaching criminal justice at Shoreline Community College.
Phill said most murders in King County are domestic violence related, and that’s why it’s so important to increase awareness and do something about it.
“We must realize how important it is, and how many people out there need help,” he said.
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