Kansas nurse fighting coronavirus in NY grieves slain friend, Overland Park officer
Stacie Kelly, one of the Kansas City area nurses who traveled to New York City to fight against COVID-19, was working inside a Harlem hospital when she got the news:
A friend she had known for years, Overland Park police officer Michael Mosher, had been shot and killed Sunday in the line of duty. In the midst of a worldwide tragedy, the personal news devastated her.
“There are no words. There are no words to say,” she recorded hours later, holding back tears on a video placed on Instagram late that night.
The Star had written about Kelly of Gardner, and her best friend, nurse Ashley Kush of Louisburg, when they volunteered to leave their families in early April to work on the front lines in New York. That story led NBC’s “Today” show on April 9 to surprise Kelly’s four young children, via video conference, with a visit from Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick, the stars of the movie “Trolls World Tour.”
On Saturday, Kush, who worked in New York for four weeks, returned to Kansas and is now quarantining at a hotel. “It has never felt so good to be HOME!” she wrote on Facebook.
Kelly, however, had opted to stay an additional two weeks. On Sunday, her husband, Mark Kelly, called to alert her about Mosher.
Mark Kelly, a campus officer for Blue Valley Southwest High School, is a former Overland Park officer who worked with Mosher for years. They started on the force only months apart. They worked the midnight shift together for six years. Their families socialized together.
“He was on Mark’s team when Mark and I started dating,” Kelly said on her video. A nurse at AdventHealth in Ottawa, she also worked in the emergency room at Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Mosher had often been there with individuals involved in car accidents or other incidents.
“Mark can vouch for this, “ she said. “I always felt safe with my husband on midnights because Mike was on his team.”
She fell into tears. “I never had to worry about my husband, because of Mike. I didn’t. I can’t say that about a lot of people. That midnight team my husband was on, when Mike was on there, I always felt completely safe knowing my husband had great people on his team that would keep him safe so he could come home.
“Now … Mike’s wife Corinne and his daughter, Tyler. He doesn’t get to come home. … I can’t just say I’m sorry enough to Mike’s family.”
She urged people to love their families and to support first responders. “They risk their lives every day, every day knowing they won’t always get to come home,” said said. “This is just horrible.”
On Monday evening, Kelly approached 10 New York City police officers, each wearing a blue protective mask, in a hall of the hospital. They didn’t know Mosher, but they were willing to honor him, holding up placards bearing Mosher’s badge number, 917, his name and a heart with a blue ribbon.
A GoFundMe page has been established for the family. The family, however, has asked for any donations to be directed to the Overland Park Police Officers Foundation. Mosher, a 14 1/2-year police veteran, died Sunday after a shootout in Overland Park, the first time an officer was slain in the city in more than three decades.
Before the shooting, Mosher, 37, radioed to dispatch about a hit-and-run crash near West 123rd Street and Antioch Road. At 5:53 p.m. officers responded to a call of shots fired. Mosher died at a nearby hospital.
The suspect, identified as Phillip Michael Carney, 38, of Overland Park, died of gunshot wounds at the scene.
Mark Kelly said his wife is scheduled to return from New York on Saturday, May 16. She will quarantine at home, hole up alone for at least one week, perhaps two, in the couple’s master suite. The Kellys have four children, Sullivan 10, Delayni, 8, McClain, 6, and Camryn, 4.
“Love your family. Give ’em hugs,” Kelly urged in her video. “’Cause (stuff) can happen, in a blink of an eye, and nothing will ever be the same.”
