The deputy U.S. marshal killed in North Carolina started out as a paperboy in Crofton

Tommy Weeks Jr. wanted to make his father proud. So he got his first job at the age of 11 and, like his father, found himself on the paper route.

The work at The Capital started small, serving a half-mile radius of the family home in Crofton. But as time went on, he was entrusted with more and more responsibility – to the point where “it was almost like a business to him,” said Tommy’s brother, Michael Weeks.

“When he’s focused on something, he gets very intense,” Michael Weeks said Monday, shortly after Tommy’s memorial service.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Tommy Weeks Jr. was one of four police officers killed April 29 in Charlotte, North Carolina, after attempting to serve an arrest warrant for Terry Clark Hughes, an ex-gunman–Felon, there was a shootout. Hughes was also killed.

Eddie Weeks, Tommy and Michael’s younger brother, said the family has been overwhelmed in the days since Tommy’s death with the support of the Marshals Service, which coordinated Monday’s memorial service. Hundreds of people, including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, gathered at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte to honor the fallen officer.

In her eulogy, Tommy’s wife Kelly Weeks said his “tragedy could not be just another death.”

“It has to be something bigger,” she said.

Tommy Weeks Jr. was the oldest of four boys who were born in Washington, D.C. but grew up in Anne Arundel County. Despite the competitive spirit between the children, the house remained in order – a testament to her mother, Bonnie, a strong woman who “kept everyone in line,” said her husband, Tom Weeks, “including me.”

But the family learned from each other that “if you work hard, you can play hard,” said Eddie Weeks, and from a young age, Tommy’s paper trail gave him the opportunity to see what a bit of financial freedom could mean to him and the people, that were important to him.

Michael Weeks said it became a “great pride” for Tommy to be able to buy things for his brothers, whether it was popcorn at the movie theater or an ice cream parlor from the Good Humor Truck.

“He was always there for others,” Tom Weeks said of his son. “He was always a man for others.”

During his teenage years, Tommy’s newspaper route evolved into a salesman role, soliciting his neighbors to purchase subscriptions. Constant competition in the sales department turned success into a reward, with opportunities for top salespeople to go to theme parks or Orioles games, while door-knocking throughout the community helped Tommy develop “his communication skills and his people skills,” said his father.

“It made him more mature,” Tom Weeks said.

Don White, who worked for The Capital for more than 20 years, became Tommy’s boss in the early 1990s. He said when he took on Tommy as an employee, it quickly became clear that the teenager was one of his top workers – always available, easy-going and “up for anything”.

“He was always interested in selling, no matter what was going on,” White said.

Matthew Skarr met Tommy while he was going door to door selling Capital subscriptions. They became quick and lasting friends.

Skarr, who grew up in Davidsonville, wasn’t much of a morning person, and it was hard to understand why Tommy was so lively so early in the day.

That energy drove sales, he said Tuesday.

“I think part of it is that he talks your ear off,” Skarr said of his old friend, “and people got so sick of it that they said, ‘Okay, okay, just give me a subscription.'”

As a student at Archbishop Spalding High in Severn and Anne Arundel Community College, Tommy performed in several musical productions, including “Grease” and “Cabaret,” and also took his studies seriously, eventually graduating from the University of Maryland.

But sports were a lifelong passion for Tommy, his family said. Because he had two parents growing up in Washington – his mother was once a cheerleader for the professional football team now known as the Commanders – he remained loyal to the sports teams in Washington and Baltimore even while living in North Carolina.

During Monday’s service, a Washington Nationals hat was positioned under Tommy’s tactical helmet on his body stand.

But ice hockey was particularly important to him. Years after becoming one of the founding members of the Spalding hockey club, when he was older and far into his career, he joined the Marshals team, where he was the only scorer in a game against the Canadian Embassy.

After following in his father’s footsteps as a newsboy, he followed the footsteps of his uncle, a city police officer, into law enforcement.

Tommy’s first job came in 2003 when he was hired as a Customs and Border Protection Officer at Charlotte Douglas International Airport inspecting passports. He then joined the Marshals Service in 2011, where he spent his first three years in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia before taking a position with the Western District of North Carolina in 2014.

During his time in law enforcement, Tommy gained a reputation among his colleagues for being dedicated and demanding, Attorney General Garland said, and constantly pushed others to be better.

“Our U.S. Marshals reflect the best of what a public servant should be – dedicated, selfless and courageous,” Garland said Monday. “Tommy did that. That was Tommy. And that’s how he lived his life. And that’s how he will always be remembered.”