MONTROSE — Police Sgt. David Kinterknecht was laid to rest Friday in a ceremony with all the pomp of visiting dignitaries, color guards and somber speeches, and all the raw pain of sobbing teenage girls who have lost a father.
As many as 1,800 mourners crowded into two gymnasiums at Montrose High School, where Kinterknecht, a 41-year-old Montrose native, had attended school and, even then, aspired to be an officer and a firefighter.
Some filed in already needing the boxes of tissues they clutched. Many clung tightly to husbands and fathers in uniform.
Those who paid tribute to Kinterknecht also lined the streets of Montrose after the funeral. They waved flags, held hands over hearts, saluted and wept as his casket passed by in the back of a 1923 firetruck well-known from local parades as Leapin’ Lena.
“It’s just so sad — one life lost and how many people it upsets,” said Deborah Svensen, who brought her young son, Trey, to watch the antique truck chug by carrying the flag-draped coffin and hundreds of family members, friends and fellow officers walking behind it.
Kinterknecht was shot a week ago when he responded to a domestic violence call. He was the second Montrose police officer to die in the line of duty. The last was in 1983.
Two other Montrose police officers were wounded last week by the shooter, who then took his own life.
Those officers, Larry Witte and Rodney Ragsdale, were wheeled into the funeral — Witte in a wheelchair and Ragsdale propped up in an ambulance stretcher.
The wounded officers were positioned on each side of Kinterknecht’s casket as it was carried out of the funeral and through a phalanx of an estimated 700 officers from at least two dozen departments — including the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Revenue — who came from across the state to honor a fallen officer.
The crowd included the two sons of the man investigators say killed Kinterknecht.
Gov. Bill Ritter also attended. Before taking his front-row seat, he hugged crying officers in the hallway. They were the officers who had been at the scene when Kinterknecht was killed.
In his remarks during the funeral, Ritter stressed that he came as a representative of all the people of Colorado.
“We the people of the state honor the service and we honor the sacrifice,” Ritter said.
Ritter thanked Kinterknecht’s widow and daughters for the sacrifice they had made along with that of their husband and father.
“In a sense, you paid the ultimate price also,” Ritter said.
Montrose Police Chief Tom Chinn called Kinterknecht a hero.
“And I define a hero as an ordinary person who does extraordinary things,” he said.
Kinterknecht’s niece Kaylee King and 16-year-old daughter, Andrea Kinterknecht, read tributes to their uncle and father.
“I love you, dear Papa,” Andrea said between heart-rending sobs. “You mean the world to me.”
Kinterknecht’s brother-in- law, John King, a Las Vegas police officer, also wept as he told the crowd of a great family man who secretly liked to watch soap operas, loved chicken and noodles and Hawaiian shirts, and never quite got the hang of driving a fifth-wheel trailer he bought for camping.
He described a big-hearted man who was always known to ask friends, family or strangers, “What do you need?”
He said Kinterknecht was a devoted husband who would text “I love you” to his wife, Kathy, several times a day. And he was “Papa Dave” to the grandson he took to the Montrose Fire Department two weeks ago so he could sit on the firetruck. Kinterknecht had been a volunteer firefighter for 10 years.
Kinterknecht began his law enforcement career at the age of 14, when he joined an Explorer program for aspiring officers. Older officers said he loved to ride along with them during that time.
“Since he was a little boy, he always wanted to hang around with cops,” said Carl Paris, a retired Montrose police officer who drove from Greeley for the funeral.
Jean Garcia said she came to the funeral with her grandson because Kinterknecht used to ride in a patrol car with her son, who was in law enforcement at the time. The officers would visit her home during breaks to eat beans, potatoes, tortillas and chiles, she said.
“He was just a wonderful person,” Garcia said. “He was one of the best.”
Kinterknecht will be buried beneath twisting, old cottonwood trees in Cedar Cemetery, a place he had often patrolled. His daughters clutched folded flags as they reluctantly left his casket there only after an officer had exhorted the mourners to “be safe and be strong, and God bless America.”
Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com
