National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

Officer Rank: Sergeant

Memorial Panel: 28-W: 27

Department: Worcester, Massachusetts, P.D.

End of Watch: April 7, 2009

Cause: PHYS

Age: 58

Years of Service: 33

Description: Sergeant Towner succumbed to mediastinitis, swelling of the area between the lungs, associated with trauma he experienced during the arrest of a violently resisting suspect at a basketball game. Sergeant Towner and a fellow officer were performing a department sanctioned security detail at a basketball game when they removed a vocally abusive man. While outside, the subject became physically abusive and attacked Sergeant Towner's partner. The officers and the suspect slipped on a patch of ice, and the suspect fled toward the school parking lot. The officers gave chase and tackled the subject as he attempted to re-enter the school. The suspect continued to resist while he was placed under arrest. Sergeant Towner began to feel shortness of breath and a tight feeling in his chest after the incident and contacted his doctor on February 25, 2009. On March 2, 2009, Sergeant Towner was examined at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and transferred immediately by ambulance to Brigham and Women's hospital. Sergeant Towner underwent heart surgery the next day and was hospitalized at the facility until his death a month later, on April 7, 2009.