219 fallen officers spanned three Colorado centuries
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published May 2, 2008 at 1:06 p.m.
Updated May 2, 2008 at 1:47 p.m.
Photo by Brian Lehmann, Special to the Rocky
Trooper Scott Hinshaw leans against a chair during a ceremony to honor fallen Colorado police officers today at Camp George West in Golden. Hinshaw, who was badly injured, was with Trooper Zachariah Templeton when he was hit and killed by a Ford truck as the two were assisting a motorist along I-76. Dee Truesdale, whose husband was killed in a bank robbery in 1986, stands next to Hinshaw.
GOLDEN — Two-hundred-fourteen white doves soared into sunny, chilly skies this morning as police officers from across the state honored fallen colleagues dating back to 1876.
Then, five more doves flew from their cages, symbolizing the five officers newly honored this year, and reminding everyone of the dangers inherent in the job.
There were color guards, the national anthem, the laying of wreaths on the stone memorial, the Amazing Grace on bagpipes, a mournful, haunting playing of Taps at the annual gathering to honor slain officers at the Colorado State Patrol Academy at Camp George West.
Above all, were the hundreds of police and sheriff's officers who came from as far as Buena Vista and Montrose to make sure that the families of the slain officer know that they'll never be forgotten.
"It's fitting to honor the people who laid down their lives in the service of their fellow human beings," Gov. Bill Ritter said as he proclaimed today Colorado Law Enforcement Memorial Day.
The first Colorado peace officer to die on duty was Charles Faber in 1876, when he was with the Bent County Sheriff's Office.
Exactly 100 years ago today, Denver Police Officer William Beck was shot by a burglar on 16th Street.
On May 2, 1908, Beck was checking a photo supply store at 423 Sixteenth St., where Tremont and the 16th Street Mall now come together.
He found the rear door unlocked, so he went inside to leave the owner a note. Beck encountered a burglar who fired at him and killed him instantly. The burglar fled and was never found.
Keith Dameron, the historian for the Memorial Committee, who also is a sergeant-at-arms at the State Legislature, managed to track down three more stories this year of officers who had died on duty but who had been forgotten.
They were:
J. Horace Frisbie, the night marshal in Lamar, who died December 26, 1906,
Charles E. Gibbs, a deputy sheriff in Routt County, who died March 21, 1929,
and John Armour Stitt, town marshal in Paonia, who died September 27, 1952.
The loved ones of the two officers who died on duty in 2007 were on hand.
Aurora Police officer Douglas D. Byrne died March 25 of last year after his car flipped after it hit a median as he swerved to miss another car. Byrne was responding to reports that a man had suffered a seizure.
Colorado State Trooper Zachariah E. Templeton died last October 12 when the patrol car he was riding in was struck by a 17-year-old driver who swerved to avoid stopped traffic near Brighton on I-76.
At the ceremony, U.S. Attorney Troy Eid recounted a conversation and exchange of e-mails he had with the daughter of Aurora Police Officer Michael Thomas, who was killed September 20, 2006, at a traffic light while on his way to a training site. Brian Washington will go on trial in the first-degree murder case this September.
"It means so much to me, Mr. Eid, that my father hasn't been forgotten," she said to him at a memorial service for her dad.
Eid told the daughter, the loved ones of the officers slain in 2007, and the gathering of hundreds in general: "It's written on our hearts as children or men: We will never forget your father. And we will never forget your families."
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