The father of an Oklahoma teenager fatally shot by police during a carjacking invited the officers and police chief to attend his daughters’ funeral because the officers were just “doing their jobs,” according to the Omaha-World Herald.
Farrah Rauch, 17, was killed on Feb. 28 after she and her 17-year-old boyfriend Joseph Dugan attempted to carjack a pickup truck, according to the report. Officers from the Muskogee Police Department chased Farrah and Dugan on foot before Farrah fired at officers while she tried to run away from the scene, prompting officers to fire back, according to 3 News Now. Dugan ran away from the scene and fatally shot himself, according to the report.
The four officers involved in the shooting are on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, according to the report.
Rauch’s father, Steven Rauch, invited the four officers that were involved in the shooting to Farrah’s funeral, along with an invitation for the police chief to speak, according to the Omaha-World Herald. (RELATED: Weeping Grandmother Tells The Man Who Murdered Her Grandson, ‘I Forgive You’)
Muskogee Police Chief Johnny Teehee will make a seven-hour drive to speak at Farrah Rauch’s funeral after an invitation from the teen’s dad, Steven Rauch. @Jess_Wade_OWH has the story: https://t.co/hwuKhRXRSu
— Omaha World-Herald (@OWHnews) March 10, 2021
“To reach out and invite (us) to the service and say, ‘we forgive you.’ … When he’s willing to do that, then I have an obligation to be here and speak,” Chief Johnny Teehee said, according to the Omaha-World Herald.
The four officers declined to attend, with Teehee noting “they just didn’t think they were ready to do this.”
“They said, ‘Chief, I’m not going to be able to do this, but will you let this family know that I love them, and we hold no ill will?”
Steven appeared to have forgiven the officers, saying they “were doing their jobs, they’re in pain and they had no idea that they were even teens,” according to the report.
Steven said that his daughter had fallen into a “dark cycle,” according to the report.
“She always did everything to the fullest, and unfortunately she took to the dark side and she got caught up in that,” he said according to the report. “I think she couldn’t break that insanity cycle of doing the same thing over and over again. I know Farrah has it now. She gets it now.”