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A “presumed armed and dangerous” cop’s wife being hunted over the death of her husband was filmed calmly walking away just minutes before the body was found — as it emerged she is an award-winning campaigner helping to save officers’ lives.
Karen Solomon, 58, fled her home in Worcester, Mass. just before police arrived and found the body of her husband, 57-year-old veteran patrolman Kurt Solomon, while responding to a call for a medical emergency early Tuesday.
Newly revelaed footage shows her calmly walking away from their home in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops around 5:41 a.m. Tuesday — just 10 minutes after police got the emergency call from her house.
“The Worcester Police Department is still actively searching for her and continues to believe she is armed,” the department said while releasing the footage and warning “the public to remain vigilant.”
A cause of death has yet to be revealed for Kurt, who served 31 years with the Worcester Police Department and was father of two adult sons. His wife had not been charged as of Thursday morning.
Before the multi-agency manhunt, Karen was an active member of her community fighting for first responders and their families.
She is the founder and president of First H.E.L.P., a nonprofit aimed at reducing the stigma around mental health concerns for police officers and first responders and raising suicide awareness.
She is also the author of two books — “Hearts Beneath the Badge” and “The Price They Pay,” both published over 10 years ago — which deal with officers’ mental health struggles and suicides.
“Her focus is the stories of the families who have lost an officer to suicide and the officers who suffer with the feeling that they have nowhere to turn,” her First H.E.L.P biography states.
Karen told CBS Boston in a 2016 interview that she was inspired to tell officers’ stories after her son approached her and asked why a classmate at school told him police kill people for no reason.
She developed a website called 1stHelp.Net, which provides resources to first responders experiencing mental, physical or financial crises, she told the outlet.
Karen was additionally a member of the 2018 Officer Safety and Wellness Group Meeting, annually hosted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and served as the co-chair of the Data and Research Committee of the National Consortium on Law Enforcement Suicide Prevention.
In 2023, she won the Community Hero Award from the Greg Hill Foundation — a Massachusetts organization that provides immediate help to families impacted by tragedies — for fighting “tirelessly” for first responders, according to the organization.
The Worcester County District Attorney’s Office said Karen is being sought “for questioning” in connection with her husband’s death.
Officer Thomas Duffy, President of NEPBA Local 911, said Kurt was a distinguished member of the department and was nearing retirement.
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