Arrest warrant issued amid search for founder of police mental health group after officer husband found dead, chief says

By Elise Hammond, CNN

(CNN) — Police issued an arrest warrant for a Massachusetts woman in connection with the death of her police officer husband earlier this week.

Authorities are searching for Karen Solomon, the co-founder of a group that advocates for the mental health of police officers, after Worcester police officer Kurt Solomon was found dead at the home they owned together on Tuesday.

Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier said at a news conference on Friday that the arrest warrant charges Karen Solomon with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon with serious bodily injury. She is considered armed and dangerous, the chief said, though Kurt Solomon’s service weapon was not missing from the home.

Saucier said Solomon’s injury involved a sharp object but declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation into the officer’s death.

Karen and Kurt Solomon shared a home and had been married, court records indicated, but authorities declined to discuss their current relationship, citing domestic violence privacy rules, according to The Associated Press.

“Kurt was a hell of a guy,” the chief remembered him at Friday’s news conference.

“He was an awesome police officer and an awesome person and he’s going to be truly missed,” Saucier said. “The Worcester Police Department is hurting right now and we’re hoping we can bring closure to the family.”

A father who loved fishing, golfing and tending to his vegetable garden

A father of two sons and “a dedicated gardener who took pride in his vegetable garden,” Kurt Solomon, 57, was also an Army veteran who served more than three decades in the Worcester Police Department, according to his obituary.

“He will be remembered for his many years of service to his country and his community, his witty sense of humor, and the pleasures he found on the street he lived on his whole life,” the obituary said.

The New England Benevolent Association, a law enforcement labor organization, said Kurt Solomon was “known as an incredibly dependable officer, colleague and friend.”

The officer, who often donated his extra vegetable crops to the food bank, enjoyed fishing, golfing and “simply sitting on his deck with a cup of coffee.”

A wake will be held on Tuesday and Solomon’s funeral will be on Wednesday, the police chief said at the news conference.

The officer’s family is “going through a lot right now,” Saucier said, adding that it is a “very difficult situation.”

Ongoing search in recreation area

Worcester has closed several nearby recreational areas and beaches for the weekend while the search for Karen Solomon continues, the city said, and people are asked to avoid Coes Pond Parks and Stearns Tavern “until further notice.” Stearns Tavern is a historical building near Coes Park.

Authorities are using divers, dogs, sonar and other types of technologies to scour the area for Karen Solomon, Saucier said.

The search continued at Coes Reservoir on Friday with marine units, helicopters, sonar and dogs, according to CNN affiliate WCVB.

The recreational area, which WCVB says is near the Solomon home, is a main focus of the search, Saucier said.

“We’re still pursuing this until the evidence leads us elsewhere,” he said.

Police previously released doorbell camera footage of Karen Solomon walking down a street in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops early Tuesday morning, just minutes after officers responded to a call from the home. Tips and calls are coming in and investigators are combing through other video, Saucier said.

“No one’s going to stop until we find Karen Solomon,” Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said.

An organization advocating for first responders

Karen Solomon is a co-founder of an organization dedicated to supporting first responders’ mental health and honoring those who have died by suicide called First H.E.L.P., the organization said in a statement Tuesday night.

“Our first concern is for the officer who lost his life, his family, his colleagues, and the Worcester law-enforcement community,” the group said in its statement. “We extend our deepest condolences to all those affected by this tragedy.”

The organization said it remains “dedicated to reducing the stigma surrounding mental health in law enforcement and the first-responder community” and will continue its carry out its work.

An author bio on Amazon describes Karen Solomon as married to a police officer and the author of two books “giving a voice to the thousands of officers in the field who can’t or won’t speak out.”

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CNN’s Nayeli Jaramillo-Plata and Amanda Jackson contributed to this report.