‘He’s yours, too’: Wife of slain Overland Park officer shares memories with community
Where a neighbor saw an overgrown yard, Overland Park police officer Michael “Mike” Mosher saw a person in need.
When the Overland Park Police Department received a call about an unsightly lawn, Mosher got a group of officers together to cut the homeowner’s grass.
“He loved to help people. He had his hands in everything,” said Officer Brad Heater, Mosher’s friend and colleague who recalled the story of Mosher’s yard mission in an interview with the Overland Park Police Department.
Through a series of video interviews released by the police department, family and colleagues of Mosher, who was killed in the line of duty earlier this month, remembered him as funny, caring and deathly afraid of arachnids.
A decorated officer with nearly 15 years in the force, Mosher, 37, was on his way to work shortly before 6 p.m. May 3 when he came across a possible hit-and-run. Mosher radioed for assistance, saying he was at West 123rd Street and Antioch Road.
Shortly after, Mosher radioed back to say the driver got out of his car and confronted him. Moments later, gunshots were fired. Mosher, 37, and the suspect, Phillip Carney, 38, both died in the shootout.
A lifelong love for police work
When Shellee Mosher’s husband, Scott Mosher, left his career in policing, she was happy.
She spent years fearing a call informing her he wasn’t coming home from his shift.
But she also couldn’t help being happy when their son Mike decided to follow in his father’s footsteps.
The young Mosher spent his childhood riding in his father’s police car, watching the TV show “CHiPs” and playing cops and robbers.
“He was always the good guy, he was never the bad guy,” his mother said.
But his childhood wasn’t always easy, his parents said. They learned he had Tourette syndrome in middle school.
One day, his parents stopped by his classroom and explained it to his peers.
“We were totally impressed his classmates stood around him and protected him and watched out for him,” his father said. “He also got his caring attitude from that, because it was demonstrated to him at a young age.”
Corinne Mosher said her husband, who had a strong sense of right and wrong, saw police work as the ultimate good.
For him, it was never just a 9-to-5 job he clocked in and out of.
During his off time at home, he’d research police incidents that could have been prevented or could have gone differently with better training or technology, she said.
“He wanted to do everything that he could to be the best cop, to be the best protector of his brothers and sisters because he wanted to be able to come home every night,” Corinne Mosher said, describing him as highly trained and an elite in his field.
An honor guard of officers is tasked with constantly watching over Mosher’s remains until his burial Wednesday.
Tara Williams, a member of the guard, said everyone she’s talked to has a story about how Mosher was there for them.
While most of her own stories are silly, she also recalled how he once came over to her house with a friend to help dig out mud for a day.
“He didn’t just put money where he could because he had it, he also gave his time very willingly,” she said.
She described Mosher as very good at his work and as “very tactically sound.”
“The fact that something like this could happen to him I think could be a wake-up call for others to be more careful and more cautious and maybe be on their game a little bit more,” she added.
‘Mr. Mom’
Corinne Mosher’s career as a firearms instructor and competitive shooter takes her all over the country.
“He was definitely like Mr. Mom,” their daughter, Tyler Mosher, chimed in as her mother described her husband’s role looking after the household.
Though she began her career as a music teacher, Corinne Mosher changed course when her husband introduced her to firearms by prompting her to take a concealed carry class in 2010. She gained a new passion that led her to become widely known in the national firearms community.
She’s never met a more supportive spouse than her husband, Corinne Mosher added.
He never tired of his family, or his jokes, she said. While he knew how to take care of business and be serious, he was also a lot of fun.
“We’re grateful for the time with him, because he taught us how to live, how we should be, and he left us making sure we would be just fine,” she said.
End of watch
Overland Park police chief Frank Donchez received a call around 6 p.m. on May 3.
Mosher had been shot.
“It’s a phone call that no police chief ever ever wants to get,” Donchez said. He was in disbelief.
He arrived at the hospital where he found at least 15 medical personnel working to save Mosher’s life.
At the same time, he estimated between 75 and 100 officers were gathering nearby to show support for Mosher’s family, but also one another.
When Mosher died shortly after, Donchez broke the news to Mosher’s wife, daughter and parents.
“We talked, we prayed, we went back in with Mike and they got to spend time with him,” he said, recalling how he was touched by the family’s strength held up against their grief.
Corinne Mosher said she returned home from the hospital around 11:30 that night.
The new widow spent the next few hours alone. She processed her loss. She thought about her husband.
Around 4 a.m. Mosher left her home to walk to her mother-in-law’s house.
As she walked past a neighbor’s house, she noticed a blue light in the window that hadn’t been there before.
The neighbor didn’t have to say anything. She knew it was for her husband.
“I cannot tell you how moving it is that people not only cared that they had lost Mike as well as us, but that they are interested in learning about what he was doing on this earth,” she said.
“We want you to get to know Mike,” she said of the community. “He’s yours, too.”
Mosher is the the first officer killed in Overland Park since 1985, when Officer Deanna Rose died of her injuries after the driver of a vehicle she pulled over on suspicion of intoxication ran her over.
‘Be like Mike’
When Officer Heater’s wife began battling cancer, Mosher approached his good friend, offering him “anything you need.”
Heater’s voice broke as he recalled the relationships his close friend and colleague built with the community and the way he helped provide to officers when they needed it, through his role as president of the Overland Park Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 21.
When they worked midnight shifts together, Mosher refused to be the first officer to go through a set of bushes, lest he come across a spider web.
“He was deathly afraid of spiders, which was always hilarious,” Heater said.
Heater has spent time since his friend’s death with his family. He was recently tasked with preparing Mosher’s uniform for the funeral. In the quieter moments, he sits by Mosher as part of the honor guard.
Shellee Mosher, the mother, hopes people continue to “be like Mike.”
Play basketball with kids, serve the community, do a silly dance, she said.
“He always said the music moved him; it moved him ugly, but it moved him,” Mosher added, laughing quietly to herself.
Tyler Mosher said she wants her father to be remembered by the things he loved: family, community service, telling jokes, making the ultimate sacrifice.
She asked some officers to leave an empty seat at roll call every night for her dad.
“(My dad) would probably look at this situation and go ‘yeah, thanks for everything, thanks for the flowers, thanks for everything, but I’m fine, I’m in a better place, get back to work,’” Tyler Mosher said. “I’m still going to be with you even though you may not be able to see me.”
Days of remembrance
Three days of events are underway to memorialize Mosher.
On Sunday, a driving vigil through Overland Park honored Mosher and other officers who have died in the line of duty.
A drive-by visitation will be Tuesday and a private funeral and public funeral procession will be Wednesday.
The private funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday inside the Overland Park Convention Center. The funeral is open only to family, friends and members of the Overland Park Police Department.
A walking funeral procession will follow the services. The public is invited to view the procession as it heads west along College Boulevard and then south on Metcalf Avenue to the entrance of Johnson County Funeral Chapel and Memorial Gardens.
A private graveside service is planned for family and friends.
