Cody Robertson tossed steaming coffee in a robber’s face in 1962, moments after the man killed her husband, a police officer. It was a rare chance for a spouse of one of Denver’s 63 fallen officers to show the murderer exactly what the victim meant to her.
On Friday, 49 years later, the 87-year-old woman demonstrated what her first husband, Darrell Suer, still means to her, as Police Chief Gerald Whitman gave her a folded flag with Suer’s badge pinned on it.
Asked whether she had a special place to keep the badge, she pressed it against her chest and said: “Yes, in my heart.”
Whitman said the department honored Suer all those years ago, but no one had ever presented his widow with his badge. He did so in a ceremony Friday.
As Whitman and the department honored Suer, his widow and 62 other fallen officers Friday, doves flew, officers played bagpipes and gave a rifle volley, a soloist sang “Danny Boy,” and Denver’s mayor and top law enforcement officials praised them all in the annual memorial.
Whitman belatedly recognized two Denver officers who were murdered in 1916 and 1921. Their sacrifices had somehow been forgotten over the years.
William H. Cabler, 64, was shot April 21, 1916, near East 46th Avenue and Lafayette Street, while he was responding on horseback to a train robbery.
Fred Jones, one of two train robbers, shot Cabler off his mount. Whitman said officers and citizens chased Jones down and arrested him. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Nearly five years later, Officer William O. Steam, 48, was patrolling dance halls and saloons downtown when Keil O’Neill entered a dance hall from behind where Steam was taking a break, playing cards.
O’Neill yelled, “I’ve got you, Steam,” and shot him twice from behind. O’Neill was retaliating against Steam for shutting down an illegal dance hall the week before, Whitman said.
O’Neill was convicted and sentenced to life in prison but was paroled in 1935.
But Friday’s most poignant moment was provided by the presence of Robertson.
It was a Saturday, March 10, 1962, when Robertson attended a state basketball tournament where her husband was working as a security officer. Afterward they went to the Marigold Cafe, 4100 Tejon St.
Shortly after midnight, three hooded robbers burst into the cafe. One aimed a gun at a waitress’ head.
Detective Suer, who was part of the former “morale bureau,” stood and ordered the robbers to drop their guns. He hesitated to shoot, apparently fearing he would hit a bystander. One of the robbers lunged and grabbed him.
As they wrestled, the gun fired and Suer crumpled to the floor, according to a Denver Post article.
“I threw hot coffee on the guy,” Robertson said.
Suer’s fellow officers said he was a “top-notch” policeman.
“That’s why he had the guts to stand right up to those gunmen and begin dishing it out,” former police Capt. Roy Tangye said at the time.
Suer’s wife agreed.
“He was so brave.”
Robertson later married her first husband’s training partner, William Robertson, who died in 2002.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
