SLAIN COLORADO OFFICER REMEMBERED
From helping someone with a flooded basement after a water main break to collecting memorabilia for a boy with cancer who wanted “police stuff ” for Christmas, Officer Eric Talley was remembered Tuesday as a man of faith who put others first, long before he rushed into a Colorado supermarket where a gunman had opened fire.
More than 1,000 people, including relatives, community members and officers from as far away as New York City, honored the 51-year-old father of seven at a memorial service just over a week after he was credited with preventing more people from dying by hurrying into the store with other officers. Besides Talley, nine others were killed in the March 22 shooting in Boulder.
During the service at Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette, Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said Talley’s personnel file was filled with thankyou letters from people he had helped. A former information technology worker, Talley felt a calling to become an officer at age 41.
Since his death, behavioral health professionals have been calling to let the department know how grateful they were for Talley’s compassionate approach to those in trouble, she said. Herold also noted that he helped found the department’s drone unit, seeing the technology as an important advance that could help the public while protecting the safety of officers.
“I would say he has left his mark, but not because of how he died but how he lived,” he said.