ASHLAND, Ore. — The family of fallen Ashland Police Officer Malcus Williams is speaking out for the first time since his passing.
“It’s hard,” Widow Ona Williams said. “I want to talk about Malcus’ memory, but it’s hard.”
On the other hand, she says meeting him was the most natural thing in the world.
“He knew I was the one and I knew he was the one from the first time we met,” Williams said.
A friend introduced the pair on campus at Southern Oregon University in 1988.
“Malcus first meets me and he’s like,’ so what do you want to do with your life?’ and I started into my plan, and he was like oh okay, and she was like, ‘shh don’t say that,’ and he was like, ‘no I really want to know,’ and right then, I was like, oh, he really wants to listen to what I have to say,” Williams said.
Ona noted Malcus was just that way, always ready to listen or help, especially when it came to his daughters Savannah, Georgia, and Brooklyn.
“He knew nothing about softball pitching, but he’s like, ‘hey you guys want to do that? I’ll learn how to pitch,” Williams said.
Savannah added, “He rented DVD’s, and went to classes, and talked with other pitching coaches in the valley, and learned the whole thing, before he was willing to teach us himself, so that he knew what he was doing.”
“Probably, he’d be learning ballet now, to help Brooklyn out,” Williams said.
The women say his sense of humor was always present.
“I used to say, ‘Malcus, Malcus, can you be serious?’ and would make some joke.”
Savannah and Georgia chimed in, quoting their father, “No I’m not serious, I’m Malcus.”
On the job, Malcus was dedicated to his work as an Ashland Police Officer, as well as his community.
“He used to say, ‘I can’t believe they pay me to do this job,'” Williams recalled.
Georgia added, “He enjoyed what he was doing, he enjoyed working with everyone, that — even anyone he was dealing with on the job, if you asked any of them, they’d be like, oh I learned something from him.”
After suffering a major medical problem during his shift on march 2nd, Malcus died at a Medford hospital, leaving a hole in this family, the law enforcement community, and Southern Oregon.
“Malcus was a person that was always there for his community, always, and his family, but family and community weren’t separate, they were one,” Williams said.
While Williams is grateful for all the support her family has received, she’s most grateful to Malcus for the example he set every day.
“I would love to just ride off into the sunset in retirement with him, and have him forever, of course, but sometimes I wonder maybe, when someone’s taken quickly when they’re young, they make a bigger impact, and so that’s what I hope is that — he’s made a bigger impact,” Williams said.
Malcus was a 21-year veteran of APD. He will be honored next year at the state memorial ceremony for fallen officers.
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