Widow of marshal killed in Charlotte shootout says her journey involves accepting help
Just before Kelly Garraghan Weeks’ husband left for work the morning of April 29, a day she thought was as ordinary as the rest, she reminded him to pick up the groceries on his way home.
A few hours later, she found out her husband, Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas M. “Tommy” Weeks Jr., was among the four law enforcement officers shot and killed while trying to arrest a man in east Charlotte. She told members of the Rotary Club of Charlotte about her experience at a lunch uptown on Tuesday.
“That was a tough day for us,” said Garraghan Weeks, a Mooresville native and UNC Chapel Hill graduate. “But that wasn’t the end of our story — it’s the beginning. The beginning of a journey.”
She told the Rotarians she’s learned many lessons in the seven months since then: how to accept help; that strength can be not just physical but mental; and how to allow herself and her children to express grief.
She said she wants to return the favor by supporting law enforcement officers, and encouraged the members to as well.
She told rotary members she wants to honor her husband’s legacy and share lessons she’s learned. But first, she told them about the fateful day, from her perspective.
A long drive to Charlotte
Finding out her husband was one of the officers shot at 5525 Galway Drive was surprising, Garraghan Weeks said, because he was supposed to be at a training in Mooresville that day. So when a friend called her asking if she saw that a U.S. marshal had been shot, she didn’t think it could be Tommy.
And even when his superior called later to tell her Tommy had been shot and taken to the hospital, she said she thought he was going to pull through.
The drive from Lincolnton to the hospital in Charlotte was the “longest 45-minute drive of my life.”
When she found out he died, she wondered what she and their children were going to do without him.
From that moment though, she said, she immediately felt supported by the people around her, which included many of Tommy’s friends and colleagues in the U.S. Marshals Service.
“Immediately they looked at me and said, ‘It’s OK, we got you. We’re gonna get through this,’” Garraghan Weeks said.
The agency supported her immediately, making sure her family received mental health support, organized Tommy’s memorial in May, and paid off the mortgage for her home, she said.
Getting support from others
It took some time to learn to accept help, she said, but now she realizes how big of a support network she and her family have, and how many people cared for her husband.
And she’s received support from other places, including the other widows who lost their loved ones that day.
Garraghan Weeks, who is the senior director for the manufacturing company The Food Market, said she speaks regularly with Ashley Eyer, the wife of Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Joshua Eyer (who also died on April 29), and they offer each other support.
They’re part of “a club no one wants to be in,” she said, but it’s helpful for them. They don’t have to explain anything to each other, and understand exactly what the other is going through.
But for as much support as she’s received, she said, she wants to make sure law enforcement officers are also getting support.
At the lunch, she reiterated a similar message she shared at her husband’s memorial service: find a law enforcement officer each day, and thank them.
She stressed the importance of helping officers navigate mental health struggles and making sure they know they have a support system.
“I can’t bring Tommy back, but I can certainly rally around the people who are doing the job today,” she said. “And that would be my request of you is to help me rally around them. Remind them that we care.”
She said she and her family have a lot to be thankful for, and don’t want to “sit at home and cry.
“The gentleman who took my husband’s life, which I refuse to remember his name, will not get two victims,” Garraghan Weeks said. “He will not take our family’s joy. He will not take our family’s love. And he will not win. Evil will not win in our family.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2024 at 4:26 PM.
