ST. LOUIS (WAND) - A woman grieving the loss of her husband, a St. Louis police officer, is going above and beyond to help others.
Alexis Bohannon remembers every detail about Aug. 29, 2020, when her husband left for his afternoon shift and didn't come home. She was sitting in bed when her phone began ringing with unknown numbers, and authorities told her something had happened with her husband, Tamarris, when he responded to a situation involving a gunman that turned violent.
NBC affiliate KSDK said Alexis went to the hospital and learned Tamarris had been shot in the head. Doctors tried to stop worsening brain swelling with surgery and a CAT scan showed he was having strokes. She ended up having to make a difficult decision to let him go.
She, her three children and grandparents gathered around with him to cry together and say final goodbyes.
The years that followed were a challenge for the family. Alexis watched the kids, who are now 7, 8 and 11, go through struggles with grieving the loss of their father.
Two days before the shooting, Alexis had just finished the credit hours she needed to complete her social work degree. Getting to that point with going back to school and completing her bachelor's degree was made a reality with tremendous support from Tamarris.
She put that degree to use after counseling helped her own children, starting the Tamarris Bohannon Memorial Foundation. She envisions it focusing on counseling for the children of fallen first responders.
Eventually, she wants it to grow to the point of building houses in low-income communities to provide free and affordable housing.
She believes Tamarris would be proud of all she has done.
“Anything that I say I'm going to do, he was supportive of, so I think he would be fine,” she said. “It’s something tangible that I could pass on to my children so that they always know what their dad was and what he did.
“He made his mark in this world.”
