SALUTING A HERO
Slain officer remembered
As a police-escorted procession delivered Const. John Davidson’s body from Vancouver General Hospital back to Abbotsford on Thursday, cops from across Canada were making plans to come to B.C. to attend the slain officer’s funeral.
Davidson, shot Monday by an alleged car thief with suspected mental health problems at an Abbotsford strip mall, was delivered Thursday afternoon to Henderson’s Fraser Valley Funeral Home.
Members of the public joined police officers and other first-responders as they lined sections of the procession route through Vancouver and even parts of Highway 1 — such as the Willingdon overpass in Burnaby — as a long stream of cruisers with lights flashing escorted the body.
Davidson’s grieving family rode in one of the cars in the procession, Abbotsford police said.
Davidson will be laid to rest on Sunday, Nov. 19. The event will reportedly be at the Abbotsford Centre arena, which can hold up to 8,500 mourners.
Although final details haven’t yet been released, officers from across B.C. and other provinces are making plans to attend. Calgary city police, for example, will send up to eight delegates in their navy dress uniforms. And media in Saskatoon are reporting two officers will come from that city, along with a book of condolences.
At the Edmonton police service, where at least two members will come to Abbotsford, Sgt. Major Jim Luttrell has experience with regimental sendoffs; after Const. Dan Woodall, 35, was shot to death in June 2015 while executing an arrest warrant in Edmonton, Luttrell helped organize the funeral, which attracted 3,000 first-responders.
People who work in this field will want to attend Davidson’s funeral, even if they never met the man.
“They are our brothers and sisters-in-arms. We know that it could be us. We do the same job. We have the same value systems,” Luttrell said.
“There will be officers from all across Canada. A lot of officers will likely also come from the U.S.”
It will be up to Davidson’s widow and children to decide if they want a regimental funeral, which follows military traditions.
“This is a pretty extreme line-of-duty death, by an act of violence. This is about the highest-level regimental funeral it gets for us,” he said.
The protocols would include an honour guard carrying the casket high on their shoulders into the service, and a standing salute at the end.
Across Canada, police often wear “memorial ribbons” — a pin shaped like a shield accompanied by black and blue ribbons — from the day officers are killed until their funeral, as a sign of collective mourning.
According to Statistics Canada, 133 police officers were murdered in this country between 1961 and 2009, and 90 per cent of those involved shootings.
The report said 10 of those murders happened in B.C.; a recent list of police deaths in Canada showed no additional police murders in B.C. since 2009, although several officers have been killed in other incidents, such as car accidents.
One of those murders was Sgt. Larry Young, a Vancouver police emergency-response-team leader shot during a drug-squad arrest in February 1987. More than 1,000 officers of all ranks from across North America marched on the streets of Vancouver at his funeral.
Oscar Ferdinand Arfmann, 65, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in Davidson’s death, a crime that shocked Abbotsford. Davidson joined the Abbotsford police in 2006, and worked with patrol, the youth squad and traffic sections.
“I don’t think there is anyone in our community that has not been impacted by this terrible event and we are only just starting the healing process,” Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said Thursday. “Abbotsford is a close-knit community, so there is a lot of sadness, but ... there is also a lot of unity and strength.”
Davidson began his law-enforcement career with Northumbria Police in the U.K., where he worked as a 24/7 response officer in Byker and North Shields, and later as a motor-patrol officer. He was with the service for 12 years.
“Many of our officers who knew John well during his career with us and kept in touch with him over the ensuing years are shocked by the events in Canada,” acting Chief Const. Winton Keenen said in a statement. “We all want to express our sincere condolences to his family at this tragic news.”
The Abbotsford Police Union has set up a fundraising page for the family of the fallen officer. The union wrote on the page that Davidson “lived his life to the fullest and was always looking to help others. John was a selfless individual who was always looking to better the lives of those around the community.” In just a day, the page surpassed the original goal of $50,000, and then increased it to $75,000. The money will go toward “supporting his family in a way that will help ease their burden during this time.”
The Abbotsford Police Department is collecting condolences at apdhero386@gmail.com. Members of the provincial legislative assembly and the public can also leave condolences by signing a book at the B.C. Legislature Hall of Honour, Speaker Darryl Plecas said Thursday.
Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth said Thursday that he hopes to attend the funeral: “I know that there will be many colleagues and first-responders and friends of Const. Davidson who will plan to attend to honour their fallen colleague.”