Thursday, January 07, 2010

Sea of Blue and Red

The funeral for Constable Eric Czapnik was held today. I include a few quotes from a CBC news article Slain Ottawa officer honoured at massive funeral:
An Ottawa police officer killed in the line of duty last week was honoured Thursday during a ceremonial procession and a funeral attended by thousands of police officers from across North America.
...
Police officers, civilian police members, firefighters and paramedics from Canada and the U.S., as well as local, federal and provincial politicians, city councillors and some senators packed the bleachers of the venue, which holds 8,000 people.
...
Czapnik was stabbed to death on Dec. 29 outside the civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital, where he had been sitting in his cruiser taking notes.

Czapnik, who had been with the Ottawa Police Service since 2007, is only the second Ottawa police officer to be killed while on duty in more than 25 years.

Kevin Gregson, a suspended RCMP officer from Saskatchewan, has been charged with first-degree murder.
...
Officers taking part include:
  • 1,500 Ottawa police.
  • 1,000 RCMP and military police.
  • 50 U.S. and international police.
  • 300 Quebec police.

Freda took all these photos with her cell phone, so they are not the same quality as our usual photos.

Constable Czapnik's platoon led the way.

Constable Czapnik's remains with honourary pallbearers.

Ottawa Police Service, led by the brass, and it looks like some RCMP red serge in there too.

Probably every Ottawa Police officer that wasn't working...

People from the community, his church, friends, etc.

The paramedics. One paramedic (a female) tackled the guy who assaulted Constable Czapnik, while others tried to save his life.

More police officers, this time - the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). Or maybe these are the Quebec police, US police, and Military Police people that were reported in the CBC article - not sure about that.

And behind them, the officers of the RCMP start.

And the RCMP officers come in waves...

The Ottawa Fire Department had two ladder trucks, with a huge flag hung between them.

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