Mourners decry violence at slain Chester councilman’s funeral

Funerals for retired cops are supposed to be tributes to lives helped, service given, beats walked – not outrage or rage.

But Monday’s funeral for Odell Williams was different.

Williams – a Chester City Council member for 17 years after having served as a Chester police officer for more than 20 years – was shot and killed Nov. 4, just a couple of blocks from his home.

Whoever killed Williams, 69, in what police say was a drive-by shooting that might have been gang-related, remains uncaught.

The killing of a fellow officer, retired or not, enrages cops – and on Monday it brought a parade of police cars and dozens of officers who stood at attention at Calvary Baptist Church as the family walked inside.

Odell Williams was one of Chester’s first black police officers when he started in the early 1970s, but the people who loved and respected him are black and white. Their pain knows no color, except the red of outrage.

Calvin Reynolds, a retired Chester officer, said Williams’ killing made him “want to put a uniform back on” and go back out into the street to help officers find his killer.

“Odell Williams was superman to me,” Reynolds told the overflowing crowd at Calvary Baptist on Monday. “This has got to be fixed.”

What Reynolds said has to be fixed is the violence that has moved from gang members shooting each other to a former cop and current councilman getting shot in the street. A man who coached and mentored troubled kids and gave them rides and money when they had nothing but dreams.

Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood said after the funeral that progress is being made in the investigation, but he declined to comment further. The shooting came after an argument with someone at another site, Underwood has said. It remains unclear if Williams was armed when he died.

So the funeral was left to those who loved Williams, and there are many.

Chester City Councilwoman Linda Tinker, who knew Williams for 40 years, said he “loved Chester” with all his heart.

People from the school Williams went to, the football teams and Boy Scout troops he led, and the concrete business he owned all spoke of his generosity and giving spirit.

A spirit that died in the same neighborhood he tried to help all his adult life.

After the funeral, retired Chester Police Chief Aaron Madden called Williams an officer with “integrity above all else.”

“Odell Williams treated people of means, and those without a dollar to their name, the same,” Madden said.

Williams’ shooting death makes the case even more upsetting to the police officers he served with, said both Reynolds and Madden.

“It sure does bother me,” Reynolds said. “A lot.”

Duke McWaters, who worked alongside Williams for more than 20 years on the Chester police force, said Williams was “as good an officer as there ever was in Chester.” For Williams, McWaters said, “serve and protect” was not a motto, but a life.

“Odell Williams was an officer who respected every single person he ever met,” McWaters said. “And now he is gone.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2014 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Mourners decry violence at slain Chester councilman’s funeral."