Slain runner’s son found peace

Now a police officer, Sean Brathwaite was not yet 5 when his father was gunned down

A couple of weeks shy of turning 5, Sean Brathwaite watched as the police officers came to the house on Calvin Street, north of Harlow Road, where his mother still lives today.

He remembers them “talking with my mom – how professional they were, and how they helped my mom.”

Now 34, Sean Brathwaite remembers an officer staying with his mother, Sharon Brathwaite, that entire day of Nov. 12, 1984, after the shattering news of her husband’s death was delivered.

So maybe it’s not entirely surprising that Sean Brathwaite, a 1998 graduate of Sheldon High School and a 2003 graduate of the University of Oregon, would grow up to become a police officer.

Brathwaite’s father, Chris Brathwaite, the former UO track man and Olympic sprinter for his native Trinidad and Tobago, was killed 30 years ago today by a sniper at Autzen Stadium. Did that incident, and the police officers’ response, prompt Sean Brathwaite to pursue a career in law enforcement?

“You know, I don’t know,” Brathwaite, a former Eugene police officer now with the UO Police Department, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I’ve always had an interest in law enforcement.”

But the events of 30 years ago “could have” contributed to his career choice, he added. “Some of my thoughts, my memories of that day. At the time, I didn’t fully understand what was going on. Obviously, very traumatic and tough for anyone to deal with.”

He and his wife, Stephanie Brathwaite, a marketing coordinator and administrative assistant at Systems West Engineers in Eugene, attended grade school and middle school together, graduated from Sheldon together and even attended the UO together.

They began dating in 2003 and moved to Boise in 2004, where Sean became a volunteer for the Boise Police Department. The couple returned in 2008 to Eugene, where Sean was hired by the Eugene Police Department after attending the Oregon Public Safety Academy in Salem. In 2012, he was hired as an officer for the newly formed UO Police Department.

The Brathwaites were married on Nov. 13, 2010, and will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary on Thursday.

Sean Brathwaite remembers his father taking him to the former Skipworth Juvenile Detention Center – across the street from Autzen Stadium – where Chris Brathwaite served as a social worker.

He remembers his father setting up a mock Olympic Games for at-risk youth. He remembers playing catch with his dad.

“Sports was always a big part of my life, one way or another,” says Brathwaite, who ran track in middle school but whose favorite sport has always been basketball.

“My biggest memories are of other people coming up to me and telling me about my father’s life and how he influenced them,” Brathwaite says. “So I think that allows my father to live on in other people’s lives.”

Earlier this year, the Oregon Track Club established the Chris Brathwaite Award, giving out the first at a dinner in February at the Club at Autzen, not far from where his life ended.

The inaugural recipient was Tom Ragsdale, who developed and directed the OTC’s first all-comers meets at the UO’s Hayward Field. Sean Brathwaite and his mother were both in attendance.

Chris Brathwaite was training for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, when he died, his son said. Chris Brathwaite would have been 40 years old if he had made his third Olympic team.

“At his age, to be able to run that way, was really amazing,” Sean Brathwaite said.

Brathwaite said he has no anger against the deranged young man who took his father’s life, and then his own just minutes later.

“I don’t,” he said. “I came to peace with it a long time ago. In fact, I don’t know his name, and that’s not something I went looking for. My main concern was my mother and my family and just making sure they have great and full lives. I don’t dwell on the past.”