Pubdate: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 Source: Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA) Copyright: 2008 The Virginian-Pilot Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/28BOIHpy Website: http://www.pilotonline.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/483 DRUG WAR CLAIMS ANOTHER CASUALTY The most dreaded phrase a law enforcement officer ever hears echoed across Hampton Roads late Thursday night for the second time this year. Officer down. Detective Mike Phillips, 37, a six-year veteran of the Virginia Beach Police Department, was shot three times during an undercover operation in which he was buying a half-pound of marijuana from a suspected drug dealer. His funeral is at 1 p.m. today at Rock Church in Virginia Beach. Phillips was the seventh police officer shot and killed in South Hampton Roads in the past 10 years. In January, Chesapeake Detective Jarrod Shivers was killed while executing a drug search warrant. The killing of a police officer, once rare, has become all too commonplace, following the proliferation of guns and drugs on the streets. Although such killings tragically seem almost routine, we can never allow ourselves to become numb to the possible consequences these men and women face every time they step out the door in the name of public safety. Friends described Phillips, who lived in Chesapeake, as a doting husband and father who was showing his boys the heating and air-conditioning business he ran in his off hours. Fellow officers and business customers alike knew him as a funny, larger-than-life guy who made the people around him feel safe. They remembered the big things - that he was a good listener - and the little things - he liked Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. He was a police officer first. He began his career as a patrol officer in Hampton in 1999, moving to Virginia Beach in 2002. He had been in the special investigations unit for two years. On Thursday night, he was doing what officers increasingly are called to do: set up drug deals with those believed to be selling, then arrest them and get them off the street. Two men are charged with first-degree murder in Phillips' death. Investigators say they don't know whether the suspects wanted to rob Phillips or whether they somehow figured out he was a police officer. But the result is that what has become routine police work - buying 8 ounces of marijuana to make a case against a dealer - cost a man his life, two boys their father and our community one of its protectors. Phillips' death is one more painful reminder that progress in confronting the drug problem comes at tremendous sacrifice. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath