THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100484
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Just 12 months after Forrest Capps joined the Police Department, he received a commendation for outstanding performance. That honor was followed by 45 more in the sergeant's 26-year police career.
``He was a workaholic,'' said Lt. Jack Collins, Capps' longtime colleague. ``When he was doing a task, he just loved it. When you gave him a task, you could be assured he would do it right.''
Capps was given the task of designing and building the department's firing range more than a decade ago. Now, the complex in Creeds is one of the most advanced target facilities in the area and the envy of many police departments.
And when Capps was tapped to supervise the department's Mounted Patrol, his only experiences with horses were weekend trail rides and a vacation at a dude ranch.
``He asked a lot of questions and tried very hard,'' said Karl Wesseler, a Mounted Patrol officer. ``He was very proud of the fact he was a policeman, but he sincerely enjoyed the horses. No one I know has spent as much time worrying about the horses and making sure they're taken care of.''
Last May, when Capps graduated from the Mounted Patrol Academy, Police Chief Charles Wall was there.
On Wednesday, Wall stood outside Virginia Beach General Hospital after Capps was wheeled into the Trauma Center.
On a dark, rural road winding through the city's southern expanse of farmland, where the 49-year-old Capps spent most of his life, Capps was struck and killed by a car Wednesday night.
He was helping a friend move furniture when a mattress in the bed of Capps' pickup truck began flapping.
At 9:25 p.m., he stopped on Princess Anne Road to tighten the rope holding the mattress.
It was dark and the road was narrow.
A tiny Ford Festiva traveling in the opposite direction slammed into Capps. The sergeant was thrown more than 70 feet.
He died at the hospital of massive injuries.
``We lost a good one,'' Wall said somberly.
Capps wife, wife, Mary ``Kitty'' Capps, works at the hospital where her husband was taken, but she wasn't on duty Wednesday night. Many of her friends were, friends who have known the couple for years.
They cried in the waiting room.
Capps was struck not far from the home he designed and built in the city's Back Bay area. Friends said he built the home next to his mother's, and then helped renovate hers.
The driver of the car that hit Capps, David S. Bennett, hasn't been charged. Police said it does not appear that speed or alcohol contributed to the crash. The accident is under investigation.
Capps joined the Police Department on New Year's Day, 1970.
He walked beats, joined the detective bureau, worked as a target-range officer and became supervisor of the Mounted Patrol. It was in that assignment where he wanted to retire, his friends said.
``When he was doing the Mounted Patrol, he ate, slept and breathed the Mounted Patrol,'' Collins said.
Capps loved to show off the horses and stables to anyone who wanted a tour, friends said.
He showed off the animals to neighbors, politicians, visitors and, recently, members of the Royal Air Force Police.
He was the Mounted Patrol's ambassador, its one-person public-relations agency, friends said.
Once, when a New York woman offered to donate a horse to the patrol, Capps tried to pay the transportation costs himself. But before he could, a donation covered the expense, friends said.
The New York horse is now a member of the department, and Capps rode him often.
Capps is survived by his wife, mother and two adult children.
Viewing will be today from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at H.D. Oliver Funeral Apartments at 2002 Laskin Road. The funeral service will be Saturday at 2 p.m. at Oak Grove Baptist Church, 691 Princess Anne Road. ILLUSTRATION: ``We lost a good one,'' Virginia Beach Police Chief Charles Wall
said of Forrest Capps.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH POLICE OFFICER ACCIDENT TRAFFIC FATALITY
by CNB