Deptford lights up blue in support of officer shot during struggle with suspect in March
DEPTFORD, N.J. - Communities in Deptford and neighboring Woodbury participated in a special tribute for a local police officer who was shot during a struggle with a suspect over a month ago.
Bobby Shisler, a 4-year veteran of the Deptford Police Department, was injured during a pedestrian stop on March 10 that escalated into a pursuit, struggle and shooting that left the suspect dead.
Shisler was rushed to a local hospital for emergency surgery after suffering "critical life-threatening injuries."
The local community quickly amassed support for Shisler in the form of t-shirts and a GoFundMe campaign that has since raised over $131k with a goal of $200k.
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"The money is nice, the prayers are good, gotta keep them coming, but I believe they really need to see our visual support and it's easy to do," Dennis Caltigirone told FOX 29.
Caltigirone organized a show-of-support for Officer Shisler on Wednesday that asked residents in Deptford and surrounding communities to place a blue light outside their homes.
The Walmart in Woodbury got in on the act by collecting more than 300 blue lights from sister-stores and giving them out to customers.
"We went and reached out to all our sister stores from here to Allentown, PA," Manager Sean Appenzeller said. "In less than 8 hours I had more than 300 light bulbs in store, and then 24-hours later, I'd given out all 300."
The tributes around the community on Wednesday also included a fundraiser at local ice cream shop "Ice Cream Love." Nonna's Pizza donated $1.50 from every customer that comes in this week through Saturday.
"With community in Deptford, everybody stays together and the police also," Nick Umile, owner of Nonna's Piza, said. "We're ‘Go, Blue’ everything; especially it is such a tragedy what happened to (Officer Shisler)."