When Scott Wheeler applied for a job at the Howard County Police Department, his mother told the agency's background investigator: "My son would give everything he has to his job."
"How prophetic your words were," Police Chief William J. McMahon told Janet Wheeler yesterday at her son's funeral at Grace Community Church in Fulton.
More than 1,000 people - about half of them members of the law enforcement community - attended yesterday's service for the first Howard County officer to die in the line of duty since 1961.
During the service, McMahon promoted Police Officer 1st Class Wheeler posthumously to corporal and announced the creation of an annual traffic safety award in his honor.
Wheeler, 31, died Monday at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center from injuries he suffered when a car he was trying to flag down for speeding struck him on eastbound Route 32. Wheeler was working overtime as part of a three-person, grant-funded "stop team," in which officers step out into a traffic lane and direct violators to the shoulder.
The department is reviewing whether it will continue the practice.
Wheeler, who lived in Millersville his entire life, was also an organ donor.
"My friend was dying, and at 2 p.m. yesterday he received my brother's kidney," said Michael Wheeler, the fallen officer's older brother. "Even in death, there is life."
The audience applauded the announcement. That moment and a few bursts of laughter during seven eulogies eased the sorrow during the 1 1/2 -hour ceremony.
As a montage of photographs of Wheeler and his family flashed on a screen to a charming and folksy version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," many people cried. There were pictures of him proposing to his wife, Tracy, with a white, heart-shaped cake. "Will You Marry Me?" was spelled out in red icing.
There were photos from their wedding in September, showing him and his wife wearing leis on a sunny beach. And then there were the "Raider Nation" photos, including one of his Oakland Raiders logo cuff links, which he wore during the wedding.
Wheeler and his wife traveled once every year to California to watch the football team play. There were photos of him with his face covered in Raiders black and silver paint - in the wildest of patterns, including one that matched the fur of a Bengal tiger. He donned Viking hats and spiked shoulder pads.
