Around the nation
Colorado town remembers slain deputy
LITTLETON – Family and friends gathered Monday night to honor a deputy who was killed Sunday when a gunman fired more than 100 rounds in an ambush-style attack.
Douglas County Deputy Zackari Parrish, 29, was killed in the attack. Four other officers were wounded.
At Monday’s vigil at Mission Hills Church, Parrish’s wife, Gracie, spoke about her husband and their two daughters.
“I am overwhelmed by the love and support of the community and of the nation. Never in my world would I have imagined this,” Gracie Parrish began through tears. “I will do everything in my power, Zack Parrish, to honor you. And I will raise these girls to love you.”
She asked for stories about her husband and the effect he had on the lives of those who knew him.
“It means so much to hear your stories and to hear about Zack because that’s what I’m clinging onto right now,” she said. “So I want to hear about him, and I want to soak it in.”
“It’s OK, Momma; it’s OK,” whispered their 4-year-old daughter in her ear. “Just be happy.”
So the happy stories kept coming. Every person who spoke said Parrish never stopped giving it his all, not even on the 10th hour of a shift.
He didn’t stop on his very last day when he walked into an apartment to try to help someone and was fatally shot.
“He didn’t flinch, he didn’t back down, he didn’t hesitate,” said David Buyers, Parrish’s sergeant in the Douglas County Sheriff ’s Department.
“He went to a call to help someone that killed him,” Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said. “He went there to help that guy.”
His fellow deputies and officers said he had a calling to do his job, but his first calling was always to God and his family.
The gunman, who was killed by police, was identified as Matthew Riehl, 37, an armed forces veteran.
“I know we are all looking for a model officer, and that’s Zack Parrish,” Castle Rock Police Chief Jack Cauley said. “I’d take a hundred of them. Rest in peace.”