Collins remembrance ‘different’ from others

Every year family, friends and colleagues of Pine Bluff Police Det. Kevin D. Collins gather at the police training center named after him to remember the life of a man who, by all accounts, exemplified servant leadership.

So much so that today’s officers learn from him – four years after he was killed in the line of duty – how to wear uniforms, communicate with the public, be diligent and be professional.

“He is the example, to this day,” Police Chief Denise Richarson said with emphasis.

Mayor Shirley Washington, struggling to fight back tears, uttered in agreement: “Yes.”

Saturday marked the fourth anniversary of Collins’ death and the fourth annual remembrance ceremony in his honor. This year’s ceremony, his mother Dornetta “Donna” Hobbs and Washington said, felt different from others.

For one, the satisfaction of justice being served in Collins’ death months earlier had not worn off either Hobbs or Washington. Keshone Smith, now 23, was convicted of first-degree murder on April 19 after a weeklong trial in 11^th West Circuit Court and has been sentenced to 35 years in state prison. He will be eligible for parole after serving at least 70% of his sentence.

“I think it was a combination of finally getting a trial and we had a decision, and this is the mayor’s last year (in office),” Hobbs said. “It’s just funny how I’m feeling awkward but good.”

The awkward feeling, she explained, comes from the loss of her only son.

“He’s not here with us anymore, so every year it seems awkward that we celebrate that, but his legacy is living on with the scholarships and through the students at UAPB and SEARK and this GVI (Group Violence Intervention) program I’m so proud of,” Hobbs said. Four scholarships in memory of Collins have been awarded to students at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Southeast Arkansas College majoring in criminal justice.

“With the trial concluding, it did bring a level of closure to the case that had not been there in the past,” Washington said. “I just know my level of emotion was so much different, and (Hobbs) said the same.”

It may have been also that this was the first of the four Collins remembrances to be held inside the center despite a comfortable, fall Saturday afternoon outside.

Smith shot Collins at the Econo Lodge Motel on North Blake Street on Oct. 5, 2020, as police sought to arrest Smith on active felony warrants out of Georgia. Another officer, Ralph Isaac, was wounded but survived.

Hobbs said she learned Friday Smith was transferred from one state prison to another.

Hobbs and Pine Bluff tourism development director Jimmy Cunningham Jr. awarded challenge coins to pastors Matt Mosler and Darren Edgerson, Mayor Washington, the Pine Bluff Police Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Capt. Yohance Brunson and members of GVI for their support of Hobbs’ family in the days since Collins’ murder – or as Cunningham described, “riding shotgun” with them.

“His family has encouraged us,” Edgerson said. “His family has shown us how to keep a loved one’s memory going.”

Edgerson said the world needs to see what it looks like when a man like Collins gives his all to his community, and called Collins a martyr to the cause of keeping his family safe.

Said Washington: “He was never a father. He was never a biological father, but he was a father and parent to so many. Sometimes he’d come by my house and say, ‘Look, I ran into this family. They don’t have any food. Whatcha got in that cabinet? Whatcha got in that refrigerator? We’d dig around in that cabinet and pantry and we’d fill up sacks and sacks of food. And that happened so many times, I can’t even think how many.”

Every year Washington has been able to memorialize her friend with different stories about the friendship they built. Collins, whom Washington had known from an early age, became the mayor’s driver for a number of events throughout her first term in office, which began in 2017.

“It’s because Kevin Collins lived such a colorful life,” Washington said. “He was that special individual who made such an impact, so the stories go on. I’m sure each day I’ll think of something that I haven’t thought of before, because I really communicated with Kevin day and night for almost four years. So, he made quite an impact on my life and an impact on so many in the Pine Bluff community.

“He was a serious guy. He was a funny guy. He was just an all-around individual, very well balanced.”