Coleen Schultz, of Lowell, said she’ll never forget the night she was told her son Nick Schultz, a Merrillville police officer, was fatally shot in September 2014.
Coleen Schultz said she was asleep in the early morning hours of Sept. 5, 2014, and it felt like she was dreaming that people were pounding on her door and calling her cell phone.
Both of her children worked nights at that time, she said, so when she awoke she thought all the commotion was her daughter trying to wake her because she could have accidentally locked the screen door.
But when she looked outside, there were many squad cars and police officers outside her house, she said.
“It was a horrible night,” Coleen Schultz said.
To honor her son, Coleen Schultz was one of 17 bike riders who arrived at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Merrillville a few minutes after 4 p.m. on Friday as part of the 23rd Annual Cops Cycling for Survivors bicycle ride around Indiana. On Friday, the group biked more than 90 miles from Mishawaka to Merrillville.
The group has offered her a community of support, Coleen Schultz said.
“Some days it’s hard, but they make it easy. They make you laugh. You cry, you laugh, you joke,” Coleen Schultz said.
The ride, which began July 8 In Indianapolis, was established to pay respect and honor Indiana’s fallen law enforcement officials.
This year’s ride pays special tribute to the seven officers who died in 2023: Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Asson Hacker; Indiana State Police Master Trooper James R. Bailey; Indiana Department of Correction Maintenance Foreman Michael Robery Keel; Indiana State Police Trooper Aaron N. Smith; Tell City Police Sergeant Heather Glenn; Marion County Deputy Sheriff John Durm; and Johnson County Deputy Sheriff Timothy J. Guyer.
The 13-day ride stops in 13 cities, including Mishawaka, Kentland, Terre Haute, Evansville and Tell City. The group has followed a template of where to stop over the years, said Indiana State Police Sergeant and Public Information Officer Kevin Getz, but the ride does shift some each year to reach the cities or counties where fallen officers from the previous year have served.
Throughout the ride, the group stops at memorial sites, incident sites and cemeteries to honor fallen officers and leave flags as a sign of remembrance, Getz said.
Getz, now the treasurer of the Cops Cycling for Survivors Foundation, said he’s participated in the ride since 2007 to honor coworkers, friends and his mentor who have died.
“My wish is that the citizens of Indiana, in their communities if they’ve lost an officer, just don’t forget. Don’t forget them, don’t forget that family that is struggling because their officer will never come home,” Getz said.
Nick Schultz, who had turned 24 days before he was shot, had been a police officer for 13 months, his mother said. He was the first Merrillville Police officer to be killed in the line of duty.
Nick Schultz died on Sept. 7, 2014, two days after being shot, after being caught in an exchange of gunfire with a man who had been evicted from his condominium and was waiting in ambush. The shooter, Michael Hrnicar, 33, then turned the gun on himself.
Coleen Schultz said her first Cops Cycling for Survivors event was in 2015 when she participated for one day. Since then, she’s participated annually for as many days as she can.
This year, Coleen Schultz said she started with the group in Indianapolis on July 8 and her last cycling day was Saturday when the group made a stop at the Lowell Police Department.
What she enjoys about the ride is that it allows survivors to remember their fallen officer’s life.
Coleen Schultz said her son “was your typical boy” who enjoyed sports growing up. At Lowell High School, he played football and went on to play football when he attended Franklin College.
When he was 3 years old, Nick Schultz watched “Cop and a Half” for the first time and it instantly became one of his favorite movies, she said. Growing up, he would say he wanted to be a police officer, likely from watching the movie.
When he went to college, his initial plan was to become a sports broadcaster or writer, Coleen Schultz said. But during his first semester, he decided he wanted a career that allowed him to be more active so he switched to criminal justice.
“He stuck with it and ended up being a police officer,” she said. “I truly think he loved what he did.”
As a police officer, his goal was to become a member of a SWAT team.
Nick Schultz and his older sister were best friends, Coleen Schultz said, and at the time of his passing, he had a girlfriend. The couple was looking for a house at the time, she said, and they likely would have married.
When a family faces the death of an officer, it is important to find ways to cope with grief that works for them, Coleen Schultz said.
“You have to find what works for you to get through those first few years,” Coleen Schultz said. “You just have to kind of keep on going and thinking that you’re doing this for them. You don’t want to just quit on life because that’s not what they would want.”
akukulka@chicagotribune.com
