It’s almost been a week since Sgt. Andrew Harnett with the Calgary police was killed during a traffic stop on New Year’s Eve and the Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) said the proximity their officers have to the incident only makes the tragedy more surreal.
“I was telling our members, when we have one happen in the states, we all grieve, when it happens here in Canada, we all grieve even more,” said Const. Shawn Davis with LPS.
“But, then it gets closer and closer to home,” he added.
Davis said when Harnett died, LPS reached out to the Calgary Police Service immediately.
“We started reaching out to the members and you realize how close we actually are,” Davis said.
On Monday, five LPS members travelled to Calgary to participate in a drive-past honouring the fallen officer.
Davis said many Lethbridge officers knew Harnett and some were even close friends.
He went on to say, although COVID-19 has impacted their ability to mourn, they knew they still had to find some way to pay their respects.
“We didn’t know what was going to happen, so we reached out to each other and again it’s a very small world,” Davis explained.
“So, I have an email list and a text list of all the sergeants and majors in Alberta and I just said we need to do something,” he said.
Davis said they then got together as a group and thought of the drive-past.
“So, we went to show solidarity that way,” he said.
LPS has been offering both counselling and spiritual supports for any officers who may need it.
“I’m available to pray with them, to counsel them, to meet with them at their wish or their desire,” Aaron Moore, a chaplain with LPS, said.
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“That’s a voluntary posture I hold with them and so if they want that they can come to me,” he added.
This heartbreaking loss reminds Lethbridge officers of the “all too real risk” they take with two of their own now memorialized in a recently completed “fallen officer wall.”
“Acting Sgt. Paul Smith died (on) June 10, 1913. The interesting part… is that June 10, 1964, is when our second officer, Calvin Byam, died,” Davis said.
“So, the same day 51 years apart,” he said.
Acting Sgt. Paul was electrocuted while on duty and officer Byam died by drowning while attempting to cross a river on horseback as he was trying to assist in evacuating people off of a small island, he was also on duty when the accident happened.
Funeral services for Harnett are planned for this weekend and some LPS officers will be attending, although it is not known exactly how many will be able to go at this time.
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