Former Lady Bear point guard among the Dallas PD officers responding to last week’s attack

Many Baylor fans remember Chelsea Whitaker, BA ’05, as the gutsy point guard for the 2005 Lady Bears team that won the program’s first national championship. After playing overseas for a couple of years, today Whitaker is a detective and a nine-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department (DPD) — one of the many officers who responded to the city’s tragic July 7 shooting.

As events unfolded following the attack that eventually claimed the lives of five Dallas officers, Whitaker was called downtown to search for snipers, doing her job on little sleep — all while still processing the loss of her colleagues. Stationed atop a hotel, Whitaker spent the night searching for snipers (despite having begun her day at 4:30 a.m.) while dealing with the emotions she felt from knowing many of her colleagues had been shot.

“I am proud of all of the officers who came out of the woods to assist last night,” Whitaker later wrote on Facebook. “God be with the families of those officers killed last night… Sometimes things just don’t make sense.”

[MORE: Read Whitaker’s “reflection from the front line” || Hear her conversation with 1660 ESPN Radio]

Although she did not initially intend to become a police officer, Whitaker says lessons learned while a Baylor student-athlete stay with her in her job. Following her basketball career, she followed her father (a retired Dallas firefighter), mother (a juvenile probation officer) and brother (a firefighter) into a career serving the people of Dallas. She’s also attending law school in her spare time, and envisions a possible future career as an attorney.

“I thought it would be cool to serve my city,” she told the Waco Tribune-Herald. “I understand why I’m here now, it makes sense, but at the time I just needed a job. … I’m just trying to be the change that people can see.”

Earlier this week, she thanked the Baylor Family for its support and later referenced James 1:19, a verse that resonates in trying times: “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”

Sic ’em, Detective Whitaker!