LEGACY OF A LAWMAN A YEAR LATER, WIDOW RECALLS HIS LIFE, CAREER

For Karen Futrell, the reality of her husband's death has begun to sink in
- -- but only gradually.

Friends speak of him in the past tense. Relatives have attended statewide
and national memorials. And she's explained to her teenage son and daughter
that daddy, a police officer who flew helicopters and small airplanes, died
doing something important.

This week she turned the pages of a scrapbook filled with her husband's
photographs, certificates and mementos, and reflected on the passage of time.

A year ago today, Sgt. Anthony Scott Futrell, her husband of 18 years, was
killed in a plane crash during a Civil Air Patrol search for marijuana in a
cotton field in Eastern North Carolina's Chowan County. Futrell, 38, was
the first Charlotte officer killed while in support of law enforcement
since 1993.

"It seems like it was only yesterday," Karen Futrell said. "It's our
family's personal loss, but the state of North Carolina also lost three
dedicated law enforcement officers. They were doing something good, trying
to keep drugs off the street. That makes it easier to understand."

Boone police Maj. Robert C. Kennedy, 46, and Chowan County Sheriff's Deputy
Richard Edward Ashley Sr., 35, were also killed when the single-engine
plane crashed near the Albemarle Sound.

Officials with the Civil Air Patrol, a volunteer auxiliary of the Air
Force, say the low-altitude flyovers are safe. Their records show there
were nine Civil Air Patrol crashes last year, the highest number since 1996
when there were also nine. Five people died in 2002, compared to none in
2001 or 2000.

Still, safety procedures have been changed following last year's crash. The
Civil Air Patrol increased the minimum flying altitude for all types of
daytime flyovers from 500 to 800 feet, Col. Stan Leibowitz said in a
telephone interview from Maxwell Air Force base in Alabama.

Leibowitz, corporate counsel for the Civil Air Patrol, also said it has
asked Cessna, the plane's manufacturer, to review part of the pilot
operating handbook related to the aircraft's fuel system. The Civil Air
Patrol has also created the safety process action group, which reviewed
last year's crash. The group will continue to review safety procedures,
officials said.

Cause Still Unrevealed

A year after the three lawmen died, National Transportation Safety Board
investigators have not released the cause of the crash. A preliminary
report shows the Cessna 172-S left Northeastern Regional Airport in Edenton
about 1 p.m. It was one of two Civil Air Patrol aircraft operating in rural
Chowan County, about 240 miles east of Charlotte. Witnesses, according to
the report, said both planes were flying primarily between 300 and 500
feet, but occasionally at lower altitudes.

The plane carrying the three officers was in a clockwise orbit and flying
lower than previous altitudes when one witness heard a sputtering noise,
the report shows. Another witness told investigators she saw the plane
nose-dive into a field. Futrell, the pilot, Kennedy, a trained spotter, and
Ashley, in his first day doing drug-related flyovers, were killed instantly.

Chowan County Sheriff Fred Spruill said the flights continue in his county
and statewide. There was a similar operation in Chowan County two weeks
after the fatal crash, he said.

"I remain confident that these aircraft are safe," Spruill said.

Asked if spotting marijuana in open fields was worth three lawmen's lives,
he paused and then said:

"This is part of law enforcement. It's what we are. It's what we do.

"We will continue to move forward with the marijuana eradication program.
These officers believed in what they were doing. I believed in what they
were doing."

State Bureau of Investigation records show the number of marijuana plants
seized has grown steadily. Authorities destroyed nearly 112,000 plants last
year, up about 26 percent from the year before, state records show.

Such operations have been flown in North Carolina for more than 20 years,
officials said.

A Son's Pride

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Darrel Stephens said officers have dealt
with Futrell's death privately and publicly.

Stephens went to Washington, D.C., in May to honor his memory. Also in May,
dozens on the force attended a statewide memorial for fallen officers held
in Charlotte. Capt. Kathy Nichols organized an October tribute to Futrell,
which included the planting of a tree at a Charlotte park.

Futrell was a county police officer before the force merged with city
police in 1993.

Karen Futrell recalled the funeral procession up Interstate 77 of more than
400 squad cars, ambulances and fire trucks, from Charlotte to Cornelius.

"There were people on the overpasses saluting my husband," she said. "They
didn't even know him."

Sgt. Futrell, of Mooresville, graduated from East Mecklenburg High School
and Gardner-Webb University in Cleveland County. He worked 15 years in law
enforcement.

Besides his wife, he is survived by his son, David, 13, and daughter,
Christy, 18.

David recalls his father showing him lots of cool stuff. His father once
let him ride in a tank, he said. He knew his father's job was dangerous.
Earlier this week, his feelings for his father were clear:

"I'm proud of him."