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Title: Slain Eugene officer switched to motorcycle patrol to spend more time with 4-year-old daughter
Source:
Register Guard
URL Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/inde ... n_eugene_officer_switched.html
Published: Apr 27, 2011
Author: The Associated Press
Post Date: 2011-04-27 09:38:28 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 1302
Comments: 3
EUGENE -- The father of slain Eugene traffic Officer Chris Kilcullen says he worried about his son getting hurt in a motorcycle crash, but he never imagined what happened Friday. "I never worried about some woman, somebody pulling out a gun and shooting him at a car stop," John Kilcullen told The Register-Guard. "The last thing I ever gave any thought to was of him being shot. He was just too nice of a guy." The 43-year-old police officer was fatally shot Friday in Springfield after a traffic stop led to a chase. Cheryl D. Kidd, 57, of Springfield, is charged with aggravated murder in Kilcullen's death. She is being held in Lane County Jail without bail. A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear. Hundreds of people swarmed the plaza outside Eugene's City Hall for a candlelight vigil Saturday night. Colleagues and family remembered Kilcullen as a devoted father and a 12-year veteran so professional at his job that even people whom he cited sang his praises, The Register-Guard reported. "I've seen him arrest bad guys who treated him like dirt, and I saw him respond to them by treating them like true gentlemen," said Lt. Doug Mozan at a news conference Saturday. "He treated people who basically didn't value him as a human as if they were a member of his whole family." Kilcullen switched to riding motorcycles so he could spend more time with his 4-year-old daughter, Katie, since the motorcycle beat meant day shifts and four-day weeks. He took his daughter everywhere when he wasn't on duty, and she happily tagged along with him all over town, as he picked up supplies for building beehives or a two-story playhouse for his girls, the officer's father said. Aside from Katie, Kilcullen left behind a wife, Kristie, and Kristie's daughter from a previous marriage, 11-year-old Sidney, John Kilcullen said. Sgt. Derel Schulz, who was Kilcullen's boss, said Kilcullen was a top member of the city's crisis negotiation team but left the squad because the training was cutting into his family time and his job as a traffic cop required a conflicting time commitment. "But I don't think you'll talk to any of his supervisors from that team that would say they'd seen anybody better than Chris in that discipline," Schulz said. Born and raised in Eugene, Kilcullen earned a sociology and psychology degree from the University of Oregon. He joined the force in 1998. His father, a Eugene attorney and former Lane County sheriff's deputy, said his son never hesitated to try something new, and often used his new skills to help others. After learning to scuba dive, he volunteered to clean tanks at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. He volunteered at police-sponsored functions to install car seats in automobiles and other charity events. A police memorial service with full honors will be at 2 p.m. Friday at Matthew Knight Arena on the University of Oregon campus.
Eugene Officer Chris Kilcullen
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#1. To: All (#0)
I'm going to the memorial Friday. He really was one of the best police officers I have known. That bike inthe picture is in front of the police department here covered in flowers and blue ribbons are tied to many trees and posts downtown. The last cop killed in the line of duty here was killed in the 1930s. This death has the entire community grieving.
Ping to the article on that cop I talked about. He was a very nice guy. That motorcycle sat outside the main EPD office amd was buried under a mountain of flowers and other memorial offerings. It was a very sad sight. R.I.P. Chris.
That bridge in the picture is an expensive suspension bicycle bridge next to the Ferry Street Bridge. It is named after Congressman Peter DeFazio, who is the senior Democrat on the Senate Transportation committee. It's a shame they have taken to naming those things after live people still in office. I like my Congress Critter, but not enough to name shit after him. The nearby to that picture new Federal Building is named after Wayne Morse who was very anti-Vietnam War. He was a very notable Senator who died in the 1970s. That is more appropriate, though that building is one of the ugliest federal buildings ever built.
#2. To: All, Mad Dog (#0)
#3. To: All, Buckeroo (#1)
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