Indiana executes Benjamin Ritchie for young police officer's murder. Widow honors victim.

For a handful of years, Bill Toney's life was like the lyrics of a Kenny Chesney song he always listened to with his wife.

"Life is good, the grass is green, the good lord smilin' on you and me. Gonna knock on wood."

The Toneys were raising two young daughters and contributing to the Indiana community they loved, the Indianapolis suburb of Beech Grove. She was a schoolteacher and he was an officer at the Beech Grove Police Department, where no one on the force had ever been killed by gunfire.

Until one terrible night on Sept. 29, 2000, when a car theft suspect Toney was chasing shot him four times, the fatal round hitting the officer just above his bulletproof vest and killing him the day before his 32nd birthday.

The murder stunned Beech Grove and left a gaping void in the lives of Toney's family. One of his daughters was just 18 months old, and the other was 4.

Now 25 years later, Toney's killer − Benjamin Ritchie − was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, May 20, in Indiana's first execution this year. It was also the first of two executions on Tuesday alone, and the 17th in the nation.

As Ritchie's life ends, Paste BN is looking back at the case and most importantly, who Toney was.

What happened to Officer Bill Toney?

On Sept. 29, 2000, Benjamin Ritchie and two other men stole a van in Beech Grove, Indiana. A few hours later, police attempted to pull it over and a chase ensued.

Officer Bill Toney responded to a call for backup. When the van crashed into a home, the suspects scattered.

Toney chased Ritchie, who had been driving. Ritchie ran into a backyard, and when Toney followed him through a gate, Ritchie shot him.

The city collectively mourned the young officer's death, and at least 1,000 people packed a local church for his funeral. Fellow officers carried Toney's flag-draped coffin.

Who was Bill Toney?

Toney was the oldest of four siblings and was became a father figure to his younger brothers and sister when their own dad died too young, said DeeDee Toney-Horen, Toney's widow.

Toney-Horen said that she met Toney when the two were in high school. Ever the protector, the couple's romance started when she was about 17 after he warned her that she had shut one of her car doors on a seatbelt and it was hanging out of the car.

The couple married in 1992 when they were about 23 years old and went on to have two daughters: Jessica Ann and Emily Kay.

"Bill was a great dad. He loved throw the girls up in the air," Toney-Horn, who has since remarried, told Paste BN. "He loved his family more than anything ... They brought him a lot of joy."

At the age of 28, Toney achieved his dream to become a Beech Grove police officer. He was working as a draftsman for a cabinet company before he joined the police academy and worked hard to graduate.

At Toney's funeral, then-police Chief Michael Curran said he remembered when the young man first strapped on his police belt, according to an archived story in the IndyStar, part of the Paste BN Network.

"His eyes sparkled, and he was as excited as a child on Christmas," Curran said.

Toney-Horen said her husband just wanted to contribute to the community that he loved and that when he finally became a Beech Grove officer, their life came together.

"He loved it ... he never dreaded to work, he didn’t take days off," she said. "He wanted to make sure if he had the opportunity to steer somebody away from a life of crime, bad choices, that's what he wanted to do."

She continued: "Life was just good. Things were going well."

When and where was Benjamin Ritchie's execution?

Ritchie's execution at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, roughly 60 miles east of Chicago, began just after midnight Tuesday, and Ritchie was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m., according to the Indiana Department of Corrections. His last meal was the Tour de Italy from Olive Garden.

"I love my family, my friends, and all the support I've gotten,” Ritchie said in his last words. “I hope they all find peace."

Execution marks end of a chapter

At a recent clemency hearing asking for mercy, Ritchie described the night of Toney’s murder as "a train that left the station with no brakes."

"Multiple bad decisions led to the loss of the life of a man who should be here today without the horrible actions that I took that night," he said. "There’s not a night that goes by I don’t think about that person … I’m so sorry for that night."

Toney-Horen described the hearing as tough to sit through.

"It's time," she told Paste BN about the execution. "It's been exhausting and just emotional. I want to focus on Bill's life. I'm tired of talking about the way that he died."

This September will mark the 25th anniversary of Toney's death. Like every year, Toney-Horen is organizing a memorial in his honor, but this time, she decided to do something big: raise money to add bulletproof glass to the patrol cars of the Beech Grove Police Department.

Her hope, to make officers' jobs a little bit safer. It's what Toney would have wanted, she said.

"I felt like it has been my duty over the years to be his voice and I have done that," she said. "And I have not backed down."

Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter at Paste BN.