Leonard Allen Reed

1969 - 2010

Relatives, friends and police officers across Central Texas on Thursday mourned the death of Leonard Allen Reed, a Cedar Park police officer who was described as "the guy everybody liked."

News of Reed's death sent shock waves through Reed's tight-knit family and the 80-member Cedar Park police force. Flags were lowered to half-staff throughout the region Thursday, and area police officers began wearing a black cloth over their badges that will remain in place until Reed is buried.

"The Cedar Park Police Department is really mourning the loss of one of our finest officers," Police Chief Henry Fluck said. "The department is in a state of shock right now. We are going through a very difficult time."

"We have a great hole in our family," said Cpl. John Hawkins , president of the Cedar Park Police Association and a detective with the department. "Leonard was the guy you never wanted to see anything happen to. Leonard was the guy everybody liked, period, end of statement."

Reed, 41 , was riding on his department motorcycle on Arrow Point Drive near RM 1431 when he crashed Wednesday afternoon, officials have said. He died Wednesday night at St. David's Round Rock Medical Center.

Hawkins said representatives of the police associations for Austin and Cedar Park would be working on funeral arrangements with Reed's family, which includes his wife, Cynthia, and two sons, who are 11 and 13. As is tradition, Hawkins said, officers have been posted to stand by Reed's body until he is buried.

A Navy veteran who had been with the department for four years, Reed was described as a popular officer among his colleagues and the public he protected. He was voted by his peers as the department's officer of the year in 2008, Fluck said.

"He loved being a police officer," Fluck said. "He was highly respected in our Police Department. He was a leader. He was admired."

Reed grew up in the St. John area of Northeast Austin until his family moved to East Austin, said longtime family friend Nelson Linder , who is head of the Austin chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Linder described Reed as a gregarious man who overcame challenges and gave back to his community, mentoring young children along the way.
While many of the children Reed grew up with went into a life of drugs and crime, Reed turned everything around and became a role model, Linder said.

"This is a major loss for Austin," said Linder, who met Reed 20 years ago. "He is a role model for how young people can turn their lives around. He came out of a very tough environment, and he was very focused; he had a really big vision and a big heart."
Cynthia Reed and another relative of Reed's declined to comment by phone Thursday.

Reed is expected to be honored by the City of Cedar Park and the Police Department at William T. Laws Jr. Park , which is named for the only other Cedar Park police officer to die in the line of duty, Hawkins said. Laws died Dec. 20, 1979, when he was struck by a vehicle while assisting at the scene of a wreck .

Reed was in the early training phase of becoming a motorcycle patrol officer with the Police Department's motor division, Hawkins said. He had just completed a traffic stop with a training officer when he lost control and was thrown from his motorcycle, he said.

The department has asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to investigate the crash, DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said.

In about two weeks, Reed was scheduled to go to a weeklong state motorcycle certification course, Hawkins said.

Previously, Reed worked in the schools division for the department and was a school resource officer at Vista Ridge High School for the 2007-08 school year, a Leander school district spokesman said.

Reed wanted to try something different, Hawkins said, and was working to become a patrol officer and make traffic stops.

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