glamour.com 137GIST IN UNIFORM: DARLEEN CHANDLER. HOSPITAL: DELOISE GIST. BEACH: JERRICKA GIST
This
Is My Job
South Carolina police officer Kimber Gist, 26,
was shot four times on duty. Now she’s grappling
with what it means to serve and protect.Life / Working It
on Facebook; they were
just like, “Why are you a
cop now?” I’ve been
accused of picking my
profession over my race.
But I know for a fact that
the guys I work with don’t
put their vests on and
say, “Let me go shoot an
African American.” And
I know female cops
who’ve had bricks thrown
at them during protests;
right now tensions are
so high. But Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. said you
can’t cure hate with
hate. We can’t attack
each other—we all need
to come together and
find a solution.
Why we need
more female
cops...
I am the only black
female on the night shift.
I’m like, “I’m making
history here.” When we’re
dealing with child abuse
or sexual assault, for
example, it always helps
to have a woman on the
scene. Most victims will
gravitate toward a female
officer. There’s a sense
of security—that we
understand each other.
What I wish
people knew
about my job...
I don’t care how much
you hate me, I will still
show up. You can throw
beer bottles at my car, but
I’m still coming because
that’s my job. —as told to
Jessica MilitareWhen I was 10, my family and I would watch Cops every Saturday.
I remember thinking, I wanna go chase bad people. As I got older, I
learned more about the real risks of being a police officer, but still, there
was nothing else I wanted to do. On the night shift I’m usually hard at
work getting guns and drugs off the streets. It’s tiring, yet some nights
I can’t sleep because of what I’ve seen. But right now I’m on light-duty
status, doing office work because I was shot while on the job in Febru-
ary. (More on that i n a m i nut e .) I shou ld b e ba c k on t he r oa d by O c t ob er,
and I’m not scared to get out there again. Yes, it’s hard being a cop in this
tense climate—people have said to me, “You’re out to kill us”—but I’m not
finished doing everything I can to keep my community safe.On the day I
was shot...
I approached a
suspicious car and asked
the driver to get out.
I thought he might be
hiding something after
he resisted a pat-down.
After that, what I
remember is the smell of
gunpowder. He shot me
in my ear, lip, stomach,
and foot. It felt like my jaw
was gone. I fired back,
and the shooter fled in his
vehicle. Somehow I took
off running behind him,
but he was gone. I wasn’t
afraid as everything was
going down; I was only
scared afterward, when I
thought I might die alone.
Two minutes later my
sergeant was there, and
I was holding his hand.
What it’s like as
an officer now...
A few months later Alton
Sterling was killed by law
enforcement in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana. People
sent me hate messagesHealed WoundsFar left,
Gist in the hospital with her
fellow officers and, left,
proudly showing her scarsDaring Deputy
Officer Gist, left, and
a headline about her
shooting, above