Officer Ken Jordan rafted in the whitewater rapids of Fiji. He fished with the boys in Alaska. He skied the Rocky Mountains with his nephews.
Through it all, he smiled.
Jordan, 32, loved adventure. He sought out the world’s most terrific scuba-diving spots, hiked the highest mountains, drove the fastest dirt bikes.
He also found delight in pranks, especially dumping cold water on friends and family after they stepped into a hot shower.
“Ken, you lived your life like there was no tomorrow,” his sister, Sue, said Monday from the pulpit at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where at least 4,000 people paid their respects to the city police officer killed last week during a traffic stop. “We enjoyed every minute of it.”
Eight white-gloved officers from the city’s police honor guard carried Jordan’s flag-draped casket into the sanctuary as hundreds in the brotherhood of law enforcement from Colorado and beyond, some as far away as Albuquerque and Oklahoma City, looked on.
Jordan was shot four times Dec. 4 while doing what every officer in the church had done dozens, if not hundreds, of times: a routine traffic stop of a suspected drunken driver. Marco Lee, 25, who had said on MySpace.com that he liked booze and guns, is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder.
Jordan was the second Colorado Springs officer killed in the line of duty this year. Jared Jensen was killed Feb. 22 while trying to arrest a fugitive.
A police officer for seven years, Jordan became a DUI specialist, in part, because the shift – from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. – gave him the opportunity to spend days outdoors.
“For those of you who didn’t know Ken Jordan, he was the person you would want to have as a friend,” said Brock Ellerman, a Denver police officer who met Jordan at Western Illinois University.
Ellerman remembered how Jordan put him at ease on his wedding day, how he sent flowers to Ellerman’s wife when she had a baby and the new gadgets he would pull out on the side of a mountain if the two were lost.
“We were all lucky and blessed to have Ken in our lives,” Ellerman said.
Fellow officers said Jordan was good at his job. He was known to have three or four arrestees lined up at Memorial Hospital, waiting for blood to be drawn.
While waiting for bloodwork on a drunken driver two years ago, Jordan met Heidi Anderson, a nurse.
When she saw him, she asked: “Who is that man with the incredible smile?”
Monday, Anderson kissed Jordan’s casket after she told mourners how she loved the officer.
“Even missing our cruise ship was a great experience because I was with you,” Anderson said. “It’s because of you that I know what love really is. … I am so incredibly proud of you. What a great cop you were.”
Hours before the service, streams of marked police cars, headlights blazing, arrived at New Life Church on the north edge of town to find a succession of American flags whipping half-staff in the cold wind.
For some, the gathering conjured feelings of déjà vu.
“It’s unbelievable – this seems like yesterday, like we just went through this,” said fellow Colorado Springs police officer and honor guard member Jimmy Paladino, who also did honor guard duty here in February. “I’m proud to do it, but I could definitely go without doing it.”
Paladino then took his position near the entrance of the church, along with several other officers in the honor guard, and awaited the arrival of the dark vehicles bearing Jordan’s casket and, close behind, his family.
The hundreds of uniformed law enforcement and emergency personnel assembled in crisp rows across from the entrance to the church. As one, they saluted the fallen officer and his loved ones as a stinging breeze stirred a few brief flurries of snow.
Just inside, piper Mike Haley of the Fountain Police Department stood in his kilt and readied his bagpipes for a few of the traditional memorial melodies he would play before and after some recorded pop songs chosen for the remembrance.
“Being an officer myself,” Haley said, “there’s not only tradition but a certain joy of playing for someone who did their job, walked the beat and made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Monday marked the first time he has played for a Colorado Springs officer killed in the line of duty. But the memory of Jensen’s service remained vivid.
“For me, it only seems like weeks ago,” Haley said. “When we heard (about Jordan’s death), within the circles of law enforcement, we immediately also talked about officer Jensen and how this happens and how we’ll be better prepared as a result of that.”
But many officers noted that Jordan’s death during a DUI traffic stop reflected harsh realities of law enforcement – no matter where it’s practiced.
“We all knew we were lucky to go 24 years without one,” said city police officer Mark Peterson, noting the long spell of relative safety before this year’s two line-of-duty fatalities. “We ran out of luck. It had nothing to do with lack of training. Sooner or later, bad luck happens to good people.”
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
