St. Paul Police Department thanks Sgt. Kill for decades of service and sacrifice to city and country

The St. Paul Police Department posted on social media thanking one of their sergeants for her decades of sacrifice and service at the department along with her 36 years of service in the U.S. Military.

“I thought I could see the world and serve my country,” said Tina Kill, about why she left Sleepy Eye, Minnesota in 1985 to join the U.S. Army. “I felt a patriotic desire just to serve.”

Kill spent her 18th birthday at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where she trained as a linguist later listening to radio traffic — stationed in Berlin in a divided Germany in the late 1980s.

“The height of the fall of the Soviet Union, Ronald Regan saying… ‘Mr Gorbachev..tear down this wall’…I was there when the wall came down,” Kill said. “The most phenomenal thing I had seen in my life.”

During her 36-year military career, Kill served by monitoring Russian radio transmissions during the Cold War, then worked in a military intelligence unit, training others military members in interrogation. Her service ended with her retirement last month from the U.S. Army Reserves, at the rank of Sergeant Major.

Sgt. Kill is also a member of the department’s Gang/Gun Unit at headquarters, one of many assignments she’s had since being sworn in as an officer back in 1995.

“I’ve always in my whole career tried to be a source of light or bring positivity to whatever call,” said Sgt. Kill.

In her current assignment that deals with guns — Sgt. Kill said they can get calls from people in crisis, including veterans.

“We get a lot of person in crisis call, unfortunately some of them are veterans, but I’m able to talk with those gentlemen and the people and have a shared experience,” said Sgt. Kill. “And say ‘let me try and help you’ or ‘here’s some advice I can give you,’ being a veteran has really helped me in the community of St. Paul.”

Over the years, Sgt. Kill has come in contact with a many residents who have experienced trauma from violence.

The department’s Facebook post this week about Sgt. Kill’s retirement from the military and service to the community — generated comments from people she’s helped over the decades.

“When you’re going about your day you don’t know how people view you or happy with the service you gave them, to see people go out and Facebook post like that, it was really astounding to me to be honest,” Sgt. Kill said.

Sgt. Kill said she’s grateful for the support of her husband and police department leaders who have helped her navigate the journey of being a mother, solider and police officer.