A retired Denver police officer who was shot in the face at point-blank range in 1985 died Friday of complications from a blood infection.
David Roberts was 58.
Donette Homra said her brother was not defined by the dramatic, heavily publicized end of his police career, which left him partially paralyzed.
“He kept a newspaper clipping about a man who had no arms and legs,” she said. “He said that whenever he felt sorry for himself, he would take that out and think about how lucky he was. Dave never felt sorry for himself.”
He had a rich sense of humor and loved his pet beagles, she said. He helped others with brain injuries or anyone who needed any help he could provide, Homra said.
On March 29, 1985, helped arrest two men who had hijacked and robbed an airport shuttle bus near Stapleton Airport.
Roberts and a detective apprehended them in an apartment at 198 South Clarkson St.
When Russell Rogers complained that his handcuffs were too tight, Roberts loosened them. Rogers slipped a hand free, grabbed a pistol from a nearby table and shot the officer in the mouth.
Roberts lay in a coma for more than a month.
Rogers was sentenced to 80 years and won’t be eligible for parole in 2024, according to the Department of Corrections.
In a handwritten victim-impact statement at Rogers’ sentencing in 1986, Roberts said, “I feel a loss of self-esteem, a loss of independence, loss of identity, a loss of control of my life, a reasonable fear of losing my job, a feeling of isolation.”
He is survived by a 32-year-old daughter, Jennifer Wedeking of Switzerland, a brother, Duane Roberts of Highlands Ranch, and two sisters, Homra and Lynne Hoffman of Thornton.
No memorial or funeral is planned, in accordance with her brother’s wishes, Homra said.
Instead, he requested friends send donations to Canine Companions for Independence, P.O. Box 446, Santa Rosa, Calif., 95402.
