999OfficerDown.com

Russ Reiker was a seasoned street cop in Phoenix, Arizona for twenty-one years. Two months before his planned retirement he was traumatically injured while on duty. This life-threatening injury was so profound he should not have survived, but did. Chronicling his career with many extraordinary and remarkable incidents, this story culminates with the intensely personal moments preceding and during his impending death - memories that have, until now, been shared with only a few very special people.

Russ Reiker's tragic story is closely mirrored throughout by the circumstances leading to the death of one of his closest friends, and fellow officer. During the worst shoot-out in the history of the Phoenix Police Department, he was killed on almost the same date and time of day Russ' career would end. Their close friendship is the subject of continual laughs, tears, anger, fear and, at times, outrage, but more often humility and pride. Forever changed by the funeral of his friend, and memorial in Washington D.C., he could never go back to being the cop he was.

In this gripping new non-fiction novel a veteran Phoenix Police Officer is driven to the brink of mental collapse...
JUST ONE SHIFT
... delves deep into the mind of a big city street cop as he confronts one impossible situation after another during the busiest shift of his career. An intense recounting, which discloses the officer's thought process as he makes repetitive, split-second, life and death decisions that have life-long effects on the people involved.

This candid summation of a ten-hour evening shift takes the officer from the totally ridiculous and laughable to the intensely outrageous and, at times, even gruesome. The senseless murder of a young girl pushes the officer beyond his emotional limits. He begins to question his own abilities, and regresses to memories of a period 10 years earlier. When he finally believes he can regain his sanity, another explosive incident occurs, thrusting him to a level of uncontrollable exhaustion.

These heart-warming and tragic moments will generate feelings of sympathy and compassion never before associated with a law enforcement officer.

With the release of, 999 Officer Down: The Russ Reiker Story, Catherine Marfino-Reiker established herself as a master of non-fiction. Her contiguous ties to the law enforcement community, and her emotionally charged stories will have the reader swiftly turning the pages of this Must Read Book!

While in her senior year at Lodi High School, Lodi, New Jersey, (click photo) Catherine Marfino-Reiker was thrust into a horrific situation with the sudden death of her father, followed by the discovery of her mother's terminal disease. During the next five years, Catherine married, had two daughters and faced other life altering situations. First, a cross-country move to Arizona, her husband's new employment as a big city cop and within a year of the move, the birth of her third child. Her three children are now all responsible, successful adults. In mid 1999 and again in early 2000, she was blessed with two beautiful grand-daughters.