Fallen DPD Officer Darren Weathers' widow opens up about the father, husband

DETROIT (WJBK) - For the first time we're hearing from the widow of Detroit Police Officer Darren Weathers.

Weathers was killed February 13 in a squad car crash traveling for a training exercise. Darren and his wife Keisha Dewitt met in 2013. She says Darren, in the military at the time and had just gotten back from Afghanistan. 

When they met a month later they knew they had a forever kind of love. She said that while everyone sees the military man, the distinguished Detroit Police Officer, but what she knows him as, is her husband and the father of their daughter.

His daughter, little 2-year-old Nyla, knows his face, kissing a photo of him every day. She knows it’s her daddy.

"Love you," she says.

We see the face of Darren Weathers and see Army veteran and Detroit police officer, but Nyla knows when she saw this face come home, her daddy would great her with "home sweet home."

"Daddy says home sweet home," she said.

After a February 13 crash in a squad car while serving in the line of duty, Nyla will never get to hear those words again.

"I will never allow her to forget who he was and is," Keisha said. "And his family will never allow her to forget who he is."

The love of his life Keisha will never let their daughter forget. 

She was holding Nyla when she laid her husband to rest, saying at the funeral, "I can't stress enough how much of a good father he was."

It is the same thing you can see now in the family he leaves behind.

"It makes me happy and proud to say that Nyla had the best daddy," Keisha said.

Keisha knew him when the badge was put up and it was just the three of them. She remembers the small details and quiet moments they shared.
 
"Everyone talks about him as a police officer or in the military," she said. "I see that also, but I see more so how he is behind closed doors. He is the exact same way, but with his guard down just a lot."

The couple could talk about moments like when a video of Weathers went viral online running with Detroit children, building bonds.

"The first thing I thought of, is you really wanted to beat that little kid, you did not want him to win, did you," Keisha said, smiling. "He started laughing, and he was just like, 'You know me.' And I was like I could see it in your face. 

"He wanted to make a difference and he always said 'I'm going to make a difference.' And that he did."

At just 25 years old the police chief called him a rising star. 

Last April before his passing Weathers helped save his partner Waldis Johnson who was shot in the head responding to a domestic violence call. The bullets started flying, but Weathers was able to help save Johnson and also shoot the suspect - proving how much of a hero he was.

To his wife, he was "Perfectly imperfect for me," she said. "He's my life partner, my soul mate, my everything."

"I didn't want to believe it," she said. "I still have my days where I'm like I don't believe it and maybe one day he might come back.

"I basically go by what would Darren want me to do, what would my mother want me to do. Knowing that I have two beautiful angels in heaven watching down on myself and Nyla, that’s everything for me."