Deputy’s dedication recalled at funeral

SEATAC, Wash. – Gov. Chris Gregoire called slain King County sheriff’s Deputy Steve Cox a role model, an inspiration, a hero and a superman when she spoke at his funeral Friday.

“He was the embodiment of the best in public service,” Gregoire said of the nine-year Sheriff’s Office veteran who died Dec. 2 from two gunshot wounds he received inside a house in White Center, a community south of Seattle.

Sheriff Sue Rahr said a hero’s funeral is traditional for a fallen officer, but this memorial – with about 2,400 people in attendance – was different.

“There has been no need to build him up. He was a real hero,” Rahr said.

She spoke of the way Cox, 46, stood out among his peers, as a hardworking, intense and driven officer who passionately wanted to make White Center, his own neighborhood, a better and safer place to live.

He was assigned there three years ago and business leaders and community members said he quickly made a difference. Last year, Cox was given a Community Builder Award from the Seattle Neighborhood Group.

Other officers and friends spoke of the way Cox drove them all to work harder and made jokes about the piles of paperwork he would file after a night of going after bad guys.

The sheriff said one deputy told her it would take five deputies to do everything Cox did – from attending community meetings to informal drug counseling and managing an army of citizen volunteers.

The sheriff and others in his life said they learned more this past week about Cox’s compassion toward the homeless and the people he arrested by spending time at an around-the-clock community memorial.

Officers from around King County, as well as family members, stood vigil all week at the memorial set up at the storefront station where Cox worked, hearing stories of appreciation – from both the people he protected from crime and those he arrested.

His younger brother, Ron Cox, said Steve had fulfilled many of his dreams and was living his life the way he wanted.

Eight months earlier, Steve and his wife of five years, Maria, had adopted a baby boy, Bronson, from Guatemala.

Steve Cox was shot in the head while interviewing partygoers about a shooting at the White Center residence. A 23-year-old man who is believed to have fired the fatal shots died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being shot twice by another deputy, a sheriff’s spokesman has said.

Sgt. Bob Lurry told the memorial crowd that Cox had a better nose for sniffing out crime than he had ever seen, and knew everyone in White Center and what they were doing.

Rahr encouraged the crowd of law enforcement officers and community residents to turn their grief into action.

“Steve proved that one man could make a difference,” she said.