‘A community united’
Tiana Cario of Canonsburg holds a candle during a prayer vigil Thursday night for Canonsburg police Officer Scott Bashioum.
Tiana Cario of Canonsburg holds a candle during a prayer vigil Thursday night for Canonsburg police Officer Scott Bashioum.
Rodney Brown Jr., 13 of Canonsburg, holds a candle while being hugged by his father, Rodney Brown Sr., during a prayer vigil for Canonsburg police Officer Scott Bashioum.
Tiana Cario of Canonsburg holds a candle during a prayer vigil Thursday night for Canonsburg police Officer Scott Bashioum.
Anita Bell, left, of Canonsburg, lights candles for people during a prayer vigil for Canonsburg police Officer Scott Bashioum, who was killed in the line of duty.
A boy bows his head and prays during a vigil for Canonsburg police Officer Scott Bashioum.
Family members of police Officer Scott Bashioum grieve Thursday night.
A prayer vigil for slain police Officer Scott Bashioum was held Thursday night at the Canonsburg Borough Building.
CANONSBURG – Pastor Jim O’Brien stepped first to the podium and established perspective. Spot-on perspective.
“We’ve seen our nation divided in recent months,” said the leader of Faith Chapel Community Church in Lawrence. “What we’re seeing this evening is a community united.”
On a chilly night, in a borough reeling from an unimaginably chilling experience, more than 400 people convened in front of the Canonsburg municipal offices Thursday for a prayer vigil and much-needed healing. Fifteen hours earlier, at about 3:15 a.m., two borough police officers answering a domestic call were shot on Woodcrest Drive.
Scott Leslie Bashioum, 52, died an hour later at Canonsburg Hospital. His partner, James Saieva, was in stable condition Thursday night at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny General Hospital.
The suspect, Michael Cwiklinski, 47, and his pregnant wife, Dalia Elhefny Sabae, were found shot to death inside their duplex. Washington County Coroner Tim Warco ruled Cwiklinski’s death a suicide, Sabae’s a homicide.
O’Brien, also the leader of Canonsburg Youth Ministerial Association, paused briefly before praising the officers. “They answered the call without knowing what they would face,” he said. “Officer Scott, the father of four, made the ultimate sacrifice. God is right beside Officer James.
“As a community, we are hurting right now. We have to ask almighty God to heal us.”
The crowd, somber yet loving, was thick all around the front of the building, spilling out into Pike Street and closing part of the borough’s main artery. Tears and sniffling predominated. Flowers, balloons, flags and stuffed animals were placed with care in the garden fronting the veterans memorial. Elected officials participated, led by Canonsburg Mayor Dave Rhome.
More than a dozen people, bearing T-shirts with “Smith Twp. Fire Rescue” on their backs, were on hand to support one of their own. Bashioum was one of their volunteer firefighters.
More than one local resident, choked up, said to a friend: “Can you believe this happened in our town?” Rhome himself said: “This is a day in Canonsburg we thought we’d never face.”
The electronic sign near Pike Street repeated the messages “Please keep Scott Bashioum and in his family in your thoughts” and “Godspeed to our injured officer.”
A number of local religious leaders said prayers, the crowd joining in. Led by Beth Peternel, they belted out a rousing rendition of “Amazing Grace.” During one of the final prayers, Canonsburg police were asked to step forward to allow members of the audience to place hands on the officers’ shoulders as the words were read.
Three women – Briana Elias, Amy Smith, the mayor’s daughter, and Jennifer Moninger – gathered in the early afternoon and ordered T-shirts from Big D’s House of Tees in the borough. They were black with a blue rectangle and white letters spelling “CBGPD” – a testament to the borough’s men and women in blue.
“They had only 43, and we bought them,” said Elias, whose group sold the shirts for $15 apiece.
At the end of the 45-minute vigil, another local pastor, Jim Wilson, repeated the thought that laid heavily on so many Thursday.
“This is a tragedy we cannot explain,” he said. “You don’t think something like this will happen here.”