(NBC News) There isn’t a day that goes by that former police officer Stephen Mader doesn’t play back the killing of Ronald J. Williams in his head
He can still hear Williams pleading for Mader to kill him, to end his life with a bullet. He can still see the pain in his face, his sunken body language and the empty gun dangling at his side.
But for all the replaying of that day last year, when Williams finally got his wish to die by cop, it’s what Mader didn’t do that has caused the most second-guessing.
“I loved being a police officer. And for them to say because of this incident you’re not going to continue here was heartbreaking,” said Mader, who was fired from the Weirton, West Virginia police department last June. “It had me questioning myself, should I be an officer.”
