James David Hawkins was born on Monday, February 16th, 1970, to Evelyn and Robert Hawkins. His father was a lawyer living in Sierra Falls, while his mother did not work. As a result he was brought up in relative affluence in The Falls district of Sierra Falls.
He attended elementary and high schools until the age of 18 and was a fairly average student, graduating with slightly above average grades in 1988. He worked for the next two years in various jobs, unable to settle as he bored of the monotony. James' father tried to encourage him into college, but James refused, having grown tired of education by the end of his high school years.
In the latter end of 1989, he heard of a recruitment campaign being undertaken by the local police department. Curious about the job, and aware of the variation it brought, he looked into it and quickly found himself in the Sierra Falls Police Academy the following year.
After graduating from the Academy in 1990, James was assigned to the Central Division of the Department, working from the Ash Street Precinct, policing areas like Meanwood and Kings. He developed a working relationship with the people of the area and enjoyed his time there, despite it being one of the roughest neighborhoods in the city.
He remained in Central Division until 1995 when, upon reading the vacancies section of the Departments weekly orders, he noticed that SWAT were recruiting. He was, at the time, at the peak of his physical fitness, going to the gym and on a run daily. He applied for the position and after passing the various phyiscal and psychological tests he was assigned to the unit.
James served in SWAT for the following five years, initially as a rifleman. During this time, in 2000, James was involved in a hostage situation at a bank in Pineville. During the incident the suspects opened fire on the SWAT team attending and two officers were fatally wounded. A third officer in James element was shot and fell in the open, James putting his own safety aside dragged the officer to cover. As a result he was awarded the lifesaving ribbon, and that year he also received the Officer of the Year ribbon by popular vote of his colleagues.
James, however, saw the incident very differently. He was dismayed at he loss of two of his team and after a short leave of absence returned to the Department, but left SWAT. His knowledge and experience of the city led him quickly into a post in the Anti-Crime Detective Bureau.
He worked specifically on drugs and gang-related crime in the bureau, and in 2005 landed a piece of information which would lead him to the largest drugs producing gang in the city. He went undercover for 6 months with the gang and due to the evidence he obtained they were arrested for production and supply of heroin, cocaine and MDMA. The following year James saw what he believed were the result of his actions.
On the night before his appearance in court James' parents house was broken into. The suspects shot and killed James parents and set the house alight. James was woken in the middle of the night by SWAT officers and detectives and was quickly whisked away and placed under witness protection. He was distraught, but convinced that the gang were responsible.
He was immediately given leave of absence by the ACDB Captain. James refused, he insisted on returning to work and getting on with his job, wanting to find his parents murderers. The Captain allowed him to return, but placed him on restricted station duties for a month whilst he was carefully observed.
Jim, as he now insisted on being called, buried himself in paperwork and intelligence analysis. At the end of the restricted duties he went straight back on the streets. It wasn't until almost six months later that the fact of his parents death being, as he perceived it, associated to his work hit him. Neither he nor the department could solve the murder of his parents. As a result he fell into a downward spiral of working all the hours he could to avoid facing reality, and when he wasn't working he was necking alcohol to the point where he would drink in the morning before work, at work and when he got home.
His change of personality was noticed by his superiors but he still brought in results, so they simply advised him to get help, not wanting to blemish his record. He was assigned to the newly formed Street Crime Unit as a Sergeant, having passed his exams several years earlier, in an attempt to keep him out of the headquarters and remains there to date. |
