'Don't Worry About Me, Worry About Whitelock:' Fallen Officer Remembered in Riverton

Retired Palmyra Lt. Howard Norcross remembers Jan. 14, 1976, like it was yesterday. 

He was feeding the police department's K-9 dog when he was asked to assist a Riverton police officer on a call. Norcross joined Thomas C. Whitelock and the two went to a home on Lippincott Avenue in Riverton where a mentally disabled man was nude, wielding a knife and threatening to cut off his body parts.

The two officers were able to disarm the subject, but he broke free during handcuffing. The suspect grabbed Whitelock's gun from his holster and shot Norcross in the stomach.

As the suspect prepared to fire off another shot at Norcross, Whitelock stepped between the two men and took a bullet in his back. Norcross then grabbed his own gun and shot the suspect seven times, five of them point blank in his chest, killing him. 

When help arrived, he told the other officers, "Don't worry about me. Worry about Whitelock."

Later in the hospital, Norcross was mostly concerned about his partner that day.

"I kept asking if Tommy is alright," Norcross said. "Deep down, I knew he wasn't."

Whitelock died from the shot.

On Saturday morning,  and unveiled a bronze plaque on a granite stone with his face and story.

Norcross, a Palmyra councilman, recounted the tragedy that day through tears, calling Whitelock a "true hero."

Police departments in , Palmyra and Edgewater Park, Honor Guard members, local, regional and state dignitaries, residents, Whitelock's family and more were in attendance.

"They always had plaques about my brother, but this is something that's special and forever," said Barbara Kazem, Whitelock's sister who flew in from Tampa, FL, for the event.

Kazem was joined by her husband Ismail and nephew—Whitelock's son—Tom, of Delran, and his girlfriend Rebecca Schwartz.

The memorial stands right outside of Riverton's gazebo on Broad and Main streets.

"It's now forever a piece of history," said Riverton Police Chief John Shaw. "He's a true hero that lived and walked the same streets we walk today."