Poignant Show Of Force Nearly 1,500 Troopers Say Farewell To Comrade Killed In The Line Of Duty

He could have been any one of them, and they knew it.

So nearly 1,500 law enforcement officers from across the United States and Canada gathered Thursday to give a hero’s farewell to James Eric Saunders, the Washington state trooper shot dead during a traffic stop last week.

He was killed doing what they have done, and what they would do tomorrow and the day after.

They came from Royal City, Wash., and Priest River, Idaho, from Arizona and Tennessee.

They drove freshly washed prowl cars from King County and the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation, their uniform buttons, shoes and guns gleaming.

They stood 12-deep in the morning chill as a stretch limousine brought Saunders’ pregnant wife and 2-year-old daughter to the doors of the Tri-Cities Coliseum.

Then, they filed inside to watch as a fallen comrade was lauded for dying in the line of duty.

Saunders died Oct. 7 after a man he stopped on U.S. Highway 395 in Pasco pulled out a pistol and opened fire at close range.

The seven-year veteran of the State Patrol was 31.

On Thursday, men and women who work as cops for cities, counties, states and federal agencies sat stone-faced as speakers marched to a dais surrounded by flowers and praised Saunders, a man called special because of his common touch.

“It has been said that those who the gods favor die young,” Gov. Gary Locke told them and the 2,000 or so civilians who also attended the morning-long service. “He died valiantly. He died with honor.”

The governor called Saunders a role model for public servants everywhere. The 6-foot-3 trooper often worked as Locke’s escort when the governor traveled in southeastern Washington.

“He was a hero, but he was also a good and decent man. He was the epitome of what we seek in a Washington state trooper and a law enforcement officer,” Locke said. “It was his dream to make a difference every day, and he did. Jim Saunders gave his life protecting us all. Today is a sad day for the people of the state of Washington.”

The officers then watched as State Patrol Chief Annette Sandberg eulogized one of her own, the first trooper shot to death on duty since 1972.

“We in law enforcement are surrounded by the squalor and decay of society,” Sandberg said. “Yet in the middle stands someone bold and honorable, someone such as Trooper Jim Saunders. He was as bold as a lion. In valor, there is hope. It is through Jim’s valor that we have hope.”

State troopers from Oregon and Idaho and hundreds from Washington looked on as a slide projector flashed images of Saunders’ life onto a large screen.

Accompanied by the song, “You’re My Unsung Hero,” photos showed Saunders as a towheaded boy in a rugby shirt, a young man in a black tuxedo kneeling before his bride and a contented father napping with his tiny daughter under a red and white quilt.

“Family was the only thing that came before the State Patrol,” said Lt. Dave Trunkey, Saunders’ commander in the Tri-Cities.

Troopers from Saunders’ detachment wept openly as a colleague read a poem they had written in the dead man’s honor.

Many of them wiped their eyes when Locke presented Saunders’ widow, Billie, with the American flag that had been draped over her husband’s coffin.

Then, as bagpipes wailed a dirge, six of Saunders’ friends wheeled his casket to a waiting hearse for transport to his hometown of Leavenworth, where he was buried Thursday afternoon.

His widow, clutching the flag from her husband’s casket in one arm and their daughter, Megan, in the other, walked slowly behind the pall bearers.

The 1,500 law enforcement officers, their faces grim, stood silently and watched them go.

This sidebar appeared with the story: Memorial fund Contributions may be made to the Jim Saunders Memorial Fund, Washington Mutual Bank, 30 Vista Way, Kennewick, WA 99336.