Courtesy of the Shepherd Center

Brenda Lawrence helps her husband, Roanoke police Officer Bryan Lawrence, with his therapy at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta in late August. The officer was left paralyzed from the shoulders down after an assault in May.

The chain of events began with one terrible act of violence.

Late one Saturday in May, Roanoke police Officer Bryan Lawrence was working his second job as a security guard when he answered a call for help. He was in the process of apprehending an assault suspect when he was attacked by a second man. The injuries he suffered left him paralyzed from his shoulders down.

He was taken to a rehabilitation center in Atlanta and today, roughly five months later, Lawrence returns to Roanoke. He uses a wheelchair now but hopes that, with work, he might someday be able to get around using a walker.

As with most tragedies, his plight is saddening and infuriating and seems, on an elemental level, brutally unfair.

But in this case, the chain continued.

In the months that followed, the attack brought about an aftershock of compassion. Over the summer and into the fall, countless people around the Roanoke Valley and beyond rallied behind Lawrence.

"There have been at least 10 separate fundraising events," said Sgt. Scott Altizer, president of the Roanoke City Police Association, who has deposited an estimated 75 checks from private citizens and businesses. Even more people have made donations directly into a bank fund.

In a phone interview last week, Lawrence called the news of all the activity on his behalf "unbelievable."

"With people losing their jobs and gas prices going up and people still coming out like that, it's just overwhelming," he said.

One of the first public responses, and the largest, was the Brian Lawrence Memorial Ride on June 14, organized by the police association.

Sgt. R.E. Chandler, one of the event's coordinators, said it started as a small-scale poker run, but others soon stepped up to take part: the Williamson Road Business Association, The Roanoke Citizen Police Academy Alumni, local Kiwanis Clubs and Harley-Davidson groups.

"Pretty soon it took on a life of its own," Chandler recalled. The run became a ride for more than 1,300 motorcycles from the Roanoke Civic Center to Bedford and back.

Chandler said the convoy of bikes, whose riders paid $20 apiece to participate, stretched for miles. He was told the first riders reached Bonsack before the last riders emerged from the civic center parking lot.

"We deal with probably 5 percent of the population," he said. "After a while, you kind of forget there's a larger percentage of the population that really respects us and is glad we're here. I didn't even realize how much until ... I saw this community come out."

He believes the reason so many came out, and continue to do so, is Lawrence's long and committed connection to the community. Lawrence is an active member of Hollins Road Baptist Church, and as a crime prevention officer he works with Project Lifesaver, which tracks people with Alzheimer's, autism or mental illness who are missing.

In 2007, Lawrence represented the department at the Rescue Mission of Roanoke's Back to School Blast. In June the mission returned the favor with a cupcake auction.

"We had a bunch of cake mix, and we had a bunch of donated cupcake pans," said Executive Director Joy Sylvester Johnson. "I don't know why we had all that stuff because usually we don't. It was sort of a serendipitous thing."

The men and women in the mission's recovery program baked several hundred of the treats and decorated them to be auctioned off. The event raised about $2,000.

Local bands Solrevolt and Code 11, whose ranks include Roanoke police officers, played benefits. Car shows organized by retired law enforcement officers and business owners pulled in funds. Roanoke's World Tavern Poker League held a tournament in his honor in July.

"We had people come and play that had never played with us before," said league member Debbie Parker. "They came out just for him."

Atul Patel, president of the Roanoke Valley Asian American Business Association, organized a fundraising dinner for more than 150 people. He said most association members were acquainted with Lawrence, but he cited a more personal encounter. He said his engine died one day while he was driving on Hershberger Road. Lawrence happened to pull up behind him.

"He was off-duty and he pushed me all the way to Walgreens by himself," Patel recalled.

Patel said $1,100 of the $4,700 they raised came from a single donor who didn't know Lawrence but learned of him that night.

Valerie Little of Roanoke County didn't know Lawrence either, but she empathized with his plight. Her husband once spent two weeks in the hospital and, she said, "nearly froze."

Little makes wool throw quilts for friends. Earlier this year, she made one in recognition of the Virginia Tech shooting victims and donated it to the school. She decided to make one for Lawrence. An officer she knew gave her a Roanoke police patch and she copied its color scheme and made the patch part of the quilt.

"I thought maybe they could make some money by selling it, or he could keep it," she said. He kept it, along with three other quilts he received.

"I can't regulate my body heat, that's one thing about spinal cord injuries. I'm either hot or cold," Lawrence said. "I've used the quilts on a regular basis."

This month, several dozen people, coordinated by Roanoke firefighters Capt. Scott Mutter and 1st Lt. Scott Graham, have committed to making Lawrence's house handicapped accessible.

"Right now, all the labor we've lined up is being donated," Graham said, adding that he was applying for building permits with Roanoke County this week. They hope to finish the work this month.

Altizer said money is still coming in, and it's too soon to tell how much has been raised. He did not want to release a figure but said the donations have allowed Lawrence to purchase a fully equipped handicapped accessible van for more than $40,000.

But Lawrence said the totals are secondary to the thought. He cited an unemployed woman who sent him a dollar and a card that read, "This is all I've got, but I wanted to do something."

"That means so much that someone would do that," he said. "The greatest thing they've done is prayed for us. The prayers that we receive every day, we gain strength from it," he said.

"It's wonderful to see the communities come together. If everybody would come together like this all the time, nobody would be hurt like me. We wouldn't have a young man in jail right now. We need to work together."

Staff writer Amanda Codispoti contributed to this report.