Dennis Sullivan
Chicago Tribune
NEW BOSTON, Texas — A correctional officer who survived a Streator house explosion last fall was beaten to death by an inmate in Texas last week, authorities said.
Timothy Davison, 47, was beaten to death Wednesday while escorting an inmate back to his cell in New Boston, Texas, where he had been a correctional officer since December.
Davison was remembered Monday as “a great father” to his two children. “His whole life centered around his kids,” said Davison’s sister-in-law, Sue Davison. Timothy Davison’s daughters, ages 17 and 9, live with their mother in Chicago’s south suburbs, the sister-in-law said.
A non-denominational memorial service Saturday at First Baptist Church in New Boston is expected to attract hundreds of law enforcement and correctional officers. Sue Davison, who is married to Timothy Davison’s brother Rich, said a service is being planned at a Chicago-area Catholic cemetery.
Timothy Davison, the youngest of five siblings, left Illinois last fall after an explosion ripped through the home he shared with his mother in Streator, about 90 miles southwest of Chicago.
First responders to the Sept. 1 explosion were able to rescue Davison, but 82-year-old Ethel Davison was killed. “I loved her very much. I’m going to miss her,” Timothy Davison told WGN-TV at the time. The son tried to reach his mother, but he was turned back by intense flames and debris, he told WGN.
“He felt guilty,” Sue Davison recalled. “He thought he should have been able to save her.”
News reports at the time did not indicate a cause of the blast, which shook several homes in the neighborhood.
Sue Davison said Timothy Davison decided to try working at the Texas prison where his brother Ken Davison was teaching heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
Timothy Davison initially planned to similarly put his HVAC degree from the College of DuPage to use at the prison, but “I guess the correctional officer position opened up,” she said.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Robert Hurst said Davison on Wednesday was escorting Billy Joel Tracy, 37, who “was restrained from behind.” Hurst said another correctional officer was in the area at the time, as required by policy, when the incident took place.
Deputy Criminal Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Calvert, who in his previous role as a Potter County district attorney prosecuted Tracy, characterized Tracy as “the most violent and dangerous defendant I have ever prosecuted, and I’ve prosecuted thousands of defendants -- literally.”
Calvert, based in the federal agency’s Dallas office, said Tracy “routinely assaulted guards” in jail and had openly stated he would kill a guard if he got the chance.
Tracy has several criminal convictions and is serving a life sentence for aggravated assault and burglary. Tracy broke “every bone” in the face of a 16-year-old girl he had abducted and then attacked a suburban Dallas police officer who came upon them, Calvert said.
“Officer Davison was a public servant in the truest sense of the phrase, but more importantly, he was a parent to two children who will remain in our thoughts and prayers as they grieve the loss of their father,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement last week.