As most of you know, a police officer at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs was killed in the line of duty last week responding to a shooting off-campus. I work and am a student at UCCS, so our campus has spent the week grieving as a community. Yesterday, Officer Garrett Swasey was laid to rest, so UCCS and many police forces turned out to support him and his family. As is police tradition, police officers from far and wide attend the funeral of a fallen brother or sister, and they drive past their final duty station in a processional.
I and many other students, faculty, and staff had the honor of lining the road by campus to support the hundreds (literally hundreds) of police, fire fighters, and EMTs who participated. We had officers from our other campuses at Boulder and Denver take over patrol duties on campus to allow our police force to attend the services. The other campus police across Colorado (and even a car from the University of Wisconsin – Madison) turned out with dozens of cities, counties, sheriffs, and our state troopers to honor Officer Swasey. A big thank you to all of our police officers who selflessly serve and protect our towns and homes every day.
I also wanted to share these beautiful words from Garrett’s wife, Rachel.
#UCCSstrong
I love this sentiment, but hated to hear about this tragedy . My dad has been a police officer for 30+ years and it’s definitely a scary time to protect and serve. I’m glad there was such a supportive turn out for his family and friends.
Such a sad thing to happen, breaks my heart.
That video had me in tears! It’s amazing to see the community come together after horrific tragedies such as this.
I’m glad there was such a big turnout. He deserved a hero’s sendoff.