COLORADO SPRINGS — Matt Tyner was the kind of police officer who people wanted to pull them over for speeding.
Once after ticketing a hysterical woman on her birthday, Tyner, a member of the Colorado Springs police motorcycle unit who died in a crash last week, decided to serenade her with “Happy Birthday.”
The encounter is among many examples Tyner’s exuberance that filled what Police Chief Pete Carey called Tyner’s “purpose driven life.” In a profession where cynicism is often the product years on the force, Tyner was never defined by his job, but by his zest for life, Carey told the nearly 2,000 people who gathered to honor Tyner’s life on Tuesday afternoon.
Tyner, 42, was killed July 24 while performing what would become the last traffic stop of his life. His motorcycle collided with a vehicle on Austin Bluffs Parkway, between Oro Blanco and Old Farm drives; he was pinned beneath the vehicle and was later pronounced dead at Memorial Hospital Central. The cause of crash remains under investigation and no tickets have been issued.
For more on this story go to
