Recently, I profiled SSgt Bobby Wayne Abshire (USMC). After distinguishing himself in combat and receiving the Navy Cross, the second-highest military decoration after the Medal of Honor for Navy and Marine Corps service personnel, he became a Fort Worth firefighter. One night after stopping to assist a motorist on the side of the road, Bobby was struck and killed by a drunk driver — after pushing the motorist out of harm’s way.

After reading that profile, the father of a Kansas City, Missouri, firefighter and a longtime supporter of The Patriot Post who knew I was a First Responder early in my career (cross-trained as a uniformed LEO, firefighter, and EMT), also knew the story of another firefighter would be of particular interest.

He asked that I look up 29-year-old KCFD firefighter/medic Graham Hoffman, who was a friend, mentor, and classmate of his son.

Graham, a graduate of Northwest Missouri State University, joined the KCFD in 2022 and was most recently assigned to Station 42. Early Sunday morning on 27 April, he was dispatched on a routine medical call to assist a woman walking along a local highway whom police reported as needing assistance. Indeed, she was in distress.

Graham and his crew determined she needed medical care. They put her in an ambulance to transport her to a local hospital for additional care. In transit to the hospital, as Graham was assisting her, she took a concealed knife from her clothing and stabbed him in the heart. Despite valiant efforts by his fellow firefighters, paramedics and officers, he died.

Unknown to Graham and the other First Responders, the woman who murdered him, 38-year-old Shanetta Bossell, had been arrested for assault and resisting arrest after attacking a police officer four days before the attack, but disgracefully, she had been released on 10% of a $10,000 bond ($1,000).

Responding to his murder, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said: “Like many, I share concern that the defendant had within the past week been arrested and charged by prosecutors with felony assault on a law enforcement officer only to, based upon the allegations, return as a serious threat to the public and first responders only days later. I believe in our justice system and will await further information about all that led to this heartbreaking incident and all that could have been done to avoid it.”

He added: “There are a lot of things that have happened since I became mayor a few years ago. I never expected a line-of-duty death like this one. I never expected a violent criminal incident to bring this amount of pain to a community and family.”

It is not clear why “Mayor Q,” who has held political office in Kansas City for the last decade, six of those years as mayor, would not expect “a violent criminal incident to bring this amount of pain to a community and family.” His city is ranked No. 8 on the list of the 25 most dangerous places in the U.S. In just one night last month during the city’s annual Juneteenth Festival, KCPD responded to five homicides.

Or maybe “this amount of pain” are the operative words because most of his city’s murders are thugs killing thugs, and those are now considered routine.

Almost all the violence in Kansas City is, as with most major Democrat-controlled urban centers, black-on-black, an inconvenient truth about race and violence that mayors like Lucas fail to acknowledge. Almost all, I note, because in the case of Graham Hoffman, it was black-on-white.

Of course, Lucas knows this truth. He is a smart guy, a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and holds a law degree from Cornell. But the truth does not fit his “hate and division” political narrative.

Lucas said, “There will be many steps ahead as we evaluate what happened, as we review what occurred, as we address whatever needs to happen in the future.”

Maybe he should start with less focus on his DEI and woke policies and more focus on the real reason systemic poverty plagues Democrat urban poverty plantations. Hint: Demos’s political fortunes are dependent on keeping poor black and brown people ensnared and enslaved by their poverty politics.

On the genuine character of Graham Hoffman, KCFD Fire Chief Ross Grundyson said: “Graham was a vibrant individual who loved life and loved serving his community. He was an excellent paramedic. He treated his patients with the highest level of skill and compassion. This is a senseless act that has taken a young man from his family, friends and coworkers and deprived our city of a dedicated firefighter who only wanted to serve and protect those in his community.”

Typical of how his fellow firefighters and paramedics felt about Graham, his Battalion Chief Ron Goodwin noted: “He’s the kind of guy you’d like to have a full crew of. You wanted to be his friend. I never thought we’d be talking about what we’re talking about today.”

Though Donald Trump recently began awarding “Medals of Sacrifice” to first responders who died in the line of duty, most of their stories just fade to black.

None of their stories should ever be forgotten.

Graham is survived by his parents, Michael and Rhonda Hoffman; brother, Nolan Hoffman; and sister, Brittani (Carr) Bushman. We offer our prayers to his family and friends enduring his absence.

Graham Hoffman: Your example of humanity — a humble American Patriot serving his fellow Americans — is eternal.

Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.

(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

Follow Mark Alexander on X/Twitter.

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