‘Fitting way’ to remember fallen officer
Sgt. Ryan Russell’s son is first to ride Clydesdale named for his dad, killed on duty in 2011
His fist punched toward the sky, as if in triumph, when Nolan Russell got to ride the horse named for the father he never got to know.
The 7-year-old boy was among those attending a Tuesday afternoon event at the Horse Palace at Exhibition Place, home of the Toronto police mounted unit, where the city’s newest equine cop was rechristened “Russell” in honour of a fallen comrade.
In the early hours of a snowy winter day in January 2011, police Sgt. Ryan Russell was struck and killed by a stolen snowplow.
Twelve thousand officers marched with his hearse on the day of his funeral. The 35-year-old veteran of the Toronto police guns and gangs unit was noted as a rising star on the force.
More than five years later, with a horse-in-training in need of a new name, mounted unit Staff Sgt. Graham Queen figured it would be a fitting tribute to name the new purebred Clydesdale after the late officer.
“We were talking with the two families — Ryan’s family and then his wife’s family — just to see what their feelings were,” Queen said.
He added that Christine, Russell’s widow, and his father, Glenn — a retired police officer — were very touched by the naming ceremony.
“It brings up memories for them,” he said.
The horse was purchased about six months ago from Carson Farms, which auctions heifers, cattle and horses in Listowel, Ont.
At the time, the Clydesdale was named Class Act. Graham said that, as with all the horses in the 25-head mounted unit, the police wanted to bestow their own moniker on the new steed.
“We try to name the horses after important events or fallen people,” he said, rhyming off the names of Russell’s barn-mates.
There’s Vimy, for instance, named after the famed First World War battle, and Tecumseh, to honour the historic Shawnee chief who fought the Americans during the War of 1812.
Russell, who roamed the barn Tuesday with the Russell family crest embroidered on his pad cover, is now halfway through his yearlong training program.
Graham described the Clydesdale as “gentle and kind” and predicted the horse will hit the streets of the city in the coming months.
Chief Mark Saunders spoke at Tuesday’s event, as well as Russell’s father, Glenn. But the first ride of the newly named horse went to Nolan, who was just a toddler when his father was killed.
“He lost his dad when he was only 2, so he doesn’t remember him too well,” Graham said, “but this will be a fitting way to memorialize him.”