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‘A sleepless night in disbelief’: Murdered AbbyPD officer’s daughter speaks

Const. John Davidson had been a police officer for 24 years.
Const. John Davidson had been a police officer for 24 years. Submitted

The daughter of the Abbotsford police officer killed in the line of duty in 2017 opened up about her father’s death.

Const. John Davidson’s daughter Fay on Thursday shared the heartbreaking moment she learned of the tragedy while speaking at a charity fundraiser.

“At the time that this happened I was at school going about my usual day,” she said, fighting back tears. “I was in the middle of a lecture when the Kelowna RCMP had to pull me out of class to break the news.

“It then took a combined effort from the RCMP and the AbbyPD to get me back to Abbotsford General Hospital where my family had been waiting for several hours so we could all go and see him together.

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“We spent a sleepless night in disbelief, reeling from what had happened. Among many scary thoughts I began wondering what this meant for the future and how we would manage as a family.”

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Davidson made the remarks at an inaugural golf tournament raising scholarship funds for the Police and Peace Officers’ Memorial Ribbon Society, a group that supports the families of fallen officers.

The tournament aims to support the children of five officers killed on duty through post-secondary education, something Davidson, a nursing student, said the group pledged to do for her in the dark days after her father’s death.

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“That hope is allowing me to follow through with the dream my dad and I shared, and in doing so honour him in the best way I know how,” she said.

The man accused of killing Const. Davidson, Oscar Arfmann, has pleaded not-guilty to first-degree murder in his death.

Arfmann’s trial wrapped at the beginning of August with the judge reserving her decision. It’s not clear when a verdict will be delivered.

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