More than 1,000 mourners gathered at a downtown Denver cathedral today to pay tribute to police Detective Donald “Donnie” Young, who was shot to death last weekend while providing security outside a private baptismal party.
“It brings us all together and reminds us of how short life truly is,” said Maggie Lopez, whose husband is a commander at the Denver Police Department and a pallbearer for Young.
Large television screens were erected outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception so the overflow crowd could watch and listen to the funeral Mass.
Streets were closed for the funeral procession to the Fort Logan National Cemetery.
A dragnet for the man suspected of killing Young, 43, and wounding fellow Detective John H. Bishop, 43, has spread across the West. Authorities in Los Angeles found the car belonging to the suspect, 19-year-old Raul Garcia-Gomez, and scores of officers were searching the area. A reward for information leading to Gomez was raised to $100,000.
Bishop and Young, a decorated officer and father of two girls, were in uniform at the party when they were shot from behind.
“I’m just lucky. There’s nothing else I can say,” Bishop said Thursday after Young’s name was engraved on a stone memorial outside police headquarters.
Today, patrol Officer Barbara Cisneros and her husband, police Cpl. Fred Cisneros, were in the crowd of law enforcement officers from several jurisdictions, each with black tape across their badge.
“My mom is scared right now,” Barbara Cisneros said. “It frightens my family. I just tell my mom this is what we chose to do.”
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| Post / RJ Sangosti |
| Police officers from around the state salute as Donnie Young’s casket arrives at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver Friday morning.
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