Academy classmates remember Officer Katie Cash

The South Mississippi community is still mourning the loss of Officer Katie Cash, who died in a car accident over the weekend in Waveland.

Officer Cash spent the last 11 weeks of her life learning, training, and growing to become the police officer she dreamed to become.

A bell toll tribute to fallen Officer Katie Cash, the law enforcement academy graduate who died one day after walking across the stage to become a Waveland police officer. Pascagoula PD Patrol Officer Brandi Kepner said, “She wanted this career because she wanted to be able to do something bigger than herself and to be something better for her children.”

Officer Cash was involved in a car accident in Waveland on Highway 603 and died from her injuries, leaving behind her two young daughters.

Officer Brandi Kepner was in the same academy training class with Officer Cash forming a friendship she’ll never forget. “I knew from that day that I was going to have a bond with her. They were actually the last people that I saw when I left graduation. I said bye to her daughters and hugged Cash’s neck and told her I loved her.”

After 11 weeks together, training to serve and protect the community, they counted on each other for support. Pascagoula PD Patrolman Calvin Hutchins said, “She would tell me Hutch. Don’t give up, pay attention. Just breathe, just breathe, and you can make it through.”

The 2021 Tack 2 graduating class formed an unbreakable bond. “I know her spirit is going to be here. It’s going to be here. It’s going to keep us going. We’re all going to remember her. We’re never going to forget Cash.”

Captain Shane Ogburn with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department remembers Cash as an attentive student who asked a lot of questions and wanted to put what she learned at the Academy to use in her own community. “The loss of an officer is always tragic. It always makes us rethink everything we do and why we do it. “

Though gone, her colleagues will never forget how she brought smiles to everyone’s faces. “She really just came into the room and brightened it. She always had a smile on her face.”

All 20 members of the law enforcement graduating class plan to attend her funeral service Saturday to honor her life and offer condolences to her family and two daughters.