PUEBLO, Colo.—Two Pueblo County lawmen who were killed in a small plane crash while searching the southern Colorado mountains for evidence of an illegal marijuana grow are being remembered as professional and dedicated men who were kind and good-humored.
The Pueblo Chieftain ( ) reports the men, identified as 43-year-old Leide DeFusco and 63-year-old John Barger, died when their plane crashed in the San Isabel National Forest on Friday.
DeFusco was a captain with the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office and the police department before that, a career that spanned 22 years.
Barger retired from the police department in 2009 after 32 years. They worked together at the department and served on its SWAT team, Barger as the unit’s captain and DeFusco as an officer.
Former Pueblo Police Chief Jim Billings says the men’s deaths are “going to leave such a void.”
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Information from: The Pueblo Chieftain,
