Feb 2024. Blues Vol 40 No. 2

DR. TINA JAECKLE
blue mental health
Survivors of LODD:
We Honor Your Journey to Healing
We continue to honor our survivors
by dedicating this monthly
mental health column to sharing
the first-person journeys of those
who have been deeply impacted
by a line of duty death and
will continue until Police Week
2024. As we listen to their voices,
I am hopeful you will gain
powerful life lessons and
perspective, appreciation,
and respect for those who
continue to serve every day,
and for those who have
made the ultimate sacrifice.
We should also never forget
those left behind in the
aftermath. This story is the
third in the series, Kimberly
Hornsby Wagner, the wife of
Officer Robert Hornsby, graciously
agreed to offer her
insight and road to recovery
in her own words.
“Before my husband was
killed, the term “survivor”
seemed somewhat hyperbolic
to me, almost a paradox.
It wasn’t until after my
husband, Robert “Bobby” Hornsby,
was killed that I realized the
term “survivor” doesn’t do justice
to the excruciating journey that
follows. Bobby was a member of
the Killeen Police Department’s
SWAT team in Killeen, TX. On
July 14, 2013, he was deployed
as part of that SWAT team to
an apartment complex where
a young soldier was walking
around the complex pool with
an AK-47, pointing it at innocent
people and asking them if they
were ready to meet their maker.
After some different interactions
took place, this young soldier,
who blew well over the legal
Police Officer
Robert Layden Hornsby
Killeen Police Department,
KilleenTexas
End of Watch
Sunday, July 14, 2013
DR. TINA JAECKLE
limit for alcohol, fired that
same weapon into the
sea of officers outside his
apartment complex. Bobby
was hit twice; the first
bullet was a flesh wound,
something he would have
easily survived. How desperately
I wish that would
have been his only wound.
The second bullet was
the shot that ultimately
would kill him instantly. In
an attempt to provide us
some solace, the doctor
told us he probably just felt
sleepy. I feel like I should
be thankful that he didn’t
suffer, but sometimes my
mind wonders and asks,
“Did his body trick him?” I struggle
with wondering if it ever
crossed his mind he wasn’t coming
home.
Thanks to social media, I
was expecting a knock at the
door. After watching Facebook
for some time trying to get an
update on the situation, some-
130 The Blues - February ‘24