‘He put his life on the line every day’
Hundreds of mourners gather to say goodbye to popular Abbotsford police officer killed in crash
Hundreds of family and friends gathered at Delta’s Riverside Funeral home Saturday to pay final respects to retired Abbotsford Police Sgt. Shinder Kirk.
Kirk, 59, died Dec. 22 in a two-vehicle collision near Nanaimo that also injured his wife Wendy and daughter Stephanie.
Kirk was a popular former media officer both for the Abbotsford Police Department and the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.
His younger brother Rob thanked mourners Saturday for the outpouring of support and condolences following the tragic accident.
Some of the hundreds of social media tributes praising Kirk as a humble, dedicated police officer were read during Saturday’s service, including a tweet by Premier John Horgan calling Kirk “a warm and caring man, dedicated to fighting gang violence and a much admired leader in the South Asian community.”
Other tributes from police forces around B.C. were also read.
Rob Kirk said the death was particularly tragic given his brother “put his life on the line every day when he went to work and made it through virtually unscathed, but then ends up leaving us in a fleeting moment.
“Shinder was just a nice human being who was always willing to roll up his sleeves and help someone out,” Rob Kirk said. “It makes you ponder the thought — why do bad things happen to good people?”
He recalled looking up to his elder brother who instilled in him a love of airplanes, as well as rock music and the B.C. Lions.
Shinder Kirk was born in Punjab, India and immigrated with his parents and siblings in 1961 when he was just a toddler. He grew up in Richmond and loved playing sports.
Before he entered the police academy in 1981 at age 22, Kirk worked delivering newspapers, on farms, in a sawmill and later in construction. He also got a pilot’s licence and qualified to fly commercially.
Kirk began his law enforcement career at the Vancouver Police Department, where “he went from being a regular beat cop to working in traffic for the VPD.”
“When he moved over to Abby, he was part of the canine unit as well as traffic and he eventually became their media spokesman,” Rob Kirk said. “I will admit there was a silent pride I had knowing the line of work he did.”
Once Kirk was seconded to the anti-gang policing agency, he was a fixture in the media and did educational programs for at-risk kids. He worked on two “Teens Against Gangs” projects.
“Later in his career when he was in the public eye, I would get asked more often if he was related to me and I did feel a sense of pride,” his brother said.
After Kirk retired as a police officer in 2012, he continued working at the APD as a commissionaire. He also travelled from Abbotsford to Richmond twice a week to care for his 94-year-old father.
Rob Kirk said their father is particularly hit hard by the death of his eldest son.
“What I can say is this has devastated us,” he said.
A public memorial service for Kirk will also be held Jan. 26 in Abbotsford at 1 p.m. at Central Heights Church, 1661 McCallum Rd. in Abbotsford.