“A brother, a son, a boyfriend, a coach and a hero.”
arvada » Nate Carrigan, gunned down last month while doing his job, was remembered Monday as nothing less than a hometown hero.
The hulking Park County deputy once ripped a car door off its hinges after a crash to save a person trapped inside. He was one of the first to respond to the 2006 shooting at Platte Canyon High School, fromwhich he graduated in 1999.
The high school boys he coached were so grateful for his leadership that they made patches for their baseball uniforms this season with Carrigan’s name, “EOW” — End of Watch— and the date he died.
John Carrigan told a crowd of more than 4,000 friends, family and law enforcement colleagues from around the country who gathered at Faith Bible Chapel that his younger sibling was “a brother, a son, a boyfriend, a coach and a hero.”
And he was never more heroic than the day he responded to the shooting inside Platte Canyon High School — a day he wasn’t even scheduled to work — in which 16- year- old junior Emily Keyes died.
“He was one of the first responders that day, and he stayed on his post with no relief,” John Carrigan said, fighting off tears as he spoke. “Even though I’m the older brother, I will always strive to be the man my brother was.”
Nate Carrigan, 35, was killed in a Feb. 24 shootout while conducting a “highrisk” eviction in Bailey. Two other deputies were wounded, and the homeowner, Martin Wirth, was killed.
Monday’s two- hour memorial in Arvada followed a two- hour funeral procession from Bailey, the small mountain town Carrigan called home. No greater moment of solemnity was had than when the sound of more than a dozen bagpipes rose in a crescendo of “Amazing Grace” and uniformed officers meticulously folded an American flag draped on Carrigan’s casket.
They handed the flag to the deputy’s family, who sat in the front row of the church.
“Nate, we’ll miss you,” said Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener during final call for the 13- year veteran, as two honor guards stood beside his casket. “From here on, Sheriff 10 is hereby retired.”
Faith Bible Chapel pastor John Malito reminded the mourners that Carrigan risked his life every day.
“Nate is your hometown hero because you allowed him to serve you completely,” Malito said.
Younger brother Jeremiah “Jamie” Carrigan, a patrol sergeant with the Black Hawk Police Department, told the congregation that he was living with Nate the day the high school was attacked. He said his brother, whowas not only a baseball and football coach at the school but a resource officer as well, didn’t think twice about heading out to the scene.
“That day was an attack on our community, but it might as well have been an attack on him,” he said.
Lawenforcement officers came to the service in Arvada from as far away as Utah, Wisconsin and New Mexico. Morgan County Sheriff Jim Crone was one of hundreds of men and women in blue who made the journey from within Colorado.
“It’s not just a job; it’s a lifestyle. All of our kids are cop kids. Our wives are all law enforcement wives,” Crone said in the windswept parking lot outside the church. “Even though we have different territories, we’re all out doing the same thing. When someone goes down, we’re all out there to support.”
Doug Schneider, with the Arvada Fire Honor Guard, said cops and emergency workers are all part of a big family.
“It’s a camaraderie that can’t be found anywhere else,” he said. “You don’t go towork thinking about tragedy. You look forward to going to work because it’s a career you feel good about doing.”
Nate Carrigan was remembered for more than just his role as a cop. Friends said he was part and parcel of what it meant to live in Bailey, a community of 8,800 people 45 miles southwest of Denver.
Jessica Mercier worked with him at Platte Canyon High.
“It’s overwhelming to see how much he meant to the community,” she said. “I’m so grateful he got to meet my 6- month- old son. When he met him about a month ago, he just looked at me and said, ‘ They sure change your world, don’t they?’ ”
Andrew Bartyzel, a sophomore at Platte Canyon High School, had Carrigan as a coach on the baseball and football teams. He said the baseball team got Nate’s initials embroidered on the back of their caps in addition to making the EOW patches in his honor.
“He had this team motto, he would always say, ‘ Next Up,’ ” Bartyzel said. “Basically it meant if you had a bad play or something, refocusing on the next thing up and giving it your absolute best.”
Dianna Austill traveled from Utah to the funeral to showher support forMelissa Patterson, Carrigan’s girlfriend, and Patterson’s four children. Austill’s husband, Darren, serves as a motorcycle officer in the Salt Lake City Police Department.
“I know what it’s like to be a wife and not know if your husband is coming back on a daily basis,” Austill said. “So we’re here for her today.”
Carrigan was honored with a 21- gun salute outside the church Monday as his casket was loaded into a shiny black hearse. The Colorado Emerald Society pipe and drum band, made up of local police officers and firefighters, played a dirge before two buglers blew Taps.
La Plata County sheriff’s Deputy Richard Paige said he met Carrigan in 2003.
“My first impression of Nate was how on Earth a guy that big could be so light on his feet,” Paige said. “He was just happy and full of life. I don’t know why God chooses the best of them to take first.”