‘My heart dropped’ -- Family members mourn life of slain Toledo police officer

Toledo police officer fatally shot Saturday morning

TOLEDO, Ohio – The last few hours have been tough for Ahamad ‘AC’ Cheaib “It really had me distraught. I just needed maybe about 2 or 3 hours by myself, just to get away,” said Cheaib.

That’s because he just lost someone very close to him in such a terrible way, “Oh my heart dropped. I couldn’t’ believe it. You’re talking about a 26-year old young man. I just couldn’t, I just couldn’t understand, why and the senseless act that it took for him to lose a life,” said Cheaib.

That life was his nephew, Toledo Police Officer Hussein Anthony Dia. Officer Dia was shot and killed in Toledo early Saturday morning when responding to a ‘Disorderly Conduct’ call at a Home Depot. Police said Officer Dia was trying to calm the suspect down, “Hussein kept walking towards him and the guy turned around and started shooting,” said Cheaib.

Officer Anthony Dia (WDIV)

AC said the people of Toledo are hurting right now, but that pain stretches across state borders, all the way to Metro Detroit, “We have family up in Dearborn, but we’re basically, for the most part, we’re all born and raised here in the Toledo, Ohio area. They got married up there. The Muslim way, the Muslim tradition. Since then, he has two beautiful boys. His oldest is 8 and his youngest is 6,” said Cheaib.

Now a wife and two sons are missing a husband and a father. Saturday, Toledo Police Department posted a statement on Twitter.

“The death of Toledo Police Officer Anthony Dia, weighs heavy on the hearts of officers and all those who knew the passion with which Officer Dia loved his family and served his community.