One day this past week a Bismarck police officer was slain at the scene of a domestic disturbance call. He and his partner approached a car holding a man against whom his girlfriend had called the cops for holding a knife on her. When the police got close the man fired his gun and killed the officer. His partner in turn shot and wounded the killer. It was a sad affair with the policeman having four kids at ho me and had planned to retire in another year.
The funeral was held Thursday in the Bismarck Civic Center so as to accommodate the large crowd which one of the TV stations estimated at 1800. He was buried at the North Dakota Veteran's Cemetery and the mourners passed within one block of our home. I went down to the highway to watch the long cavalcade of cars. It was reported 120 agencies were represented, each having its car lights in full blinking mode. Many of the agencies drove several cars so I can only think there were 200-250 vehicles. I made a mental note of where they came from, and I'm sure most of the communities in the state sent a patrol car, several from Minnesota included Minneapolis, Duluth, Eagan, Moorhead, and a couple of unfamiliar Minnesota counties, several from South Dakota, college campus police, Indian reservations, unmarked cars with their hidden lights in their grilles blinking, etc. It was quite a show for a man who died much too young in an uncalled for situation.
