MEMPHIS, Tenn. — According to Bishop Brandon Porter, Memphis Police Officer Geoffrey Redd remains in critical condition after the shooting at the Poplar-White Station library Thursday afternoon.
Officer Redd became a part of the Greater Community Temple while working his typical patrol route for MPD many years ago.
“He would come through and check our facilities out at night and drive through in the parking lot,” Bishop Redd said. “Sometimes [he would] sit here until ladies finish going back and forth to their cars just securing the area.”
Officer Redd has been a safeguard for the Parkway Village area of the Mid-South for around five years, Bishop Porter said.
Redd later found his wife through the church.
“He also found his wife here, they got married in September,” Bishop Porter said. “She’s one of our counselors over our membership nurturing. She’s over when people get sick or have issues or casualties and situations she intervenes with her committees and so on and keeps up with the membership like that.”
His wife, Kimberly, is now taking care of her husband as he remains stable but in extremely critical condition at Regional One, according to Bishop Porter.
Bishop Porter said Kimberly is pushing through for both the officer and their children. Unfortunately, this is not the first time his life was at risk for the sake of protecting the Memphis community.
“Redd had ironically another incident that was life-threatening,” Bishop Porter said. “He was servicing someone in traffic and while he was servicing this person a car came and hit him and catapulted him several feet in the air landed on his face and almost lost his eyesight and had to learn to walk again.”
“When he finished recovering from this extreme traumatic situation, he goes right back to law enforcement and every morning he wakes by putting his life on the line for others,” he said.
Bishop Porter said being at the center of the Tyre Nichols case creates a different perspective for him when it comes to an injured Memphis Police Officer, especially one who’s like family.
“We talk about all the things that are happening now ‘cause I’ve been an integral part of the Tyre Situation, we’re all talking about what’s wrong with policing, but we have to understand there is a true passion for them and the behind the scenes we don’t see,” Bishop Porter said. “Cause when I walked in the family room at the hospital, who’s there? The Mayor is there, the police chief is there and several other officers.”
He said if he could ask the community to do one thing for the officer involved in this case, it would be to pray for him in any way they’re able to.
“So, I’m the pastor, I’m coming to pray but I sense that prayer has already taken place. Then you see a sea of officers with tears in their eyes. Why? Cause they realize it could’ve been them.”