Officer Killed in Planned Parenthood Shooting Honored

A campus police officer killed in the Planned Parenthood shooting was honored Friday for volunteering to rush to the clinic as shots rang out, an act those who knew him say was driven by his sense of purpose and faith.

Gov. John Hickenlooper told hundreds of people packed into the service at New Life Church, including Garrett Swasey's wife and two young children, that Swasey followed his beliefs and his calling in the shooting a week before.

"He was brave and strong and courageous and in sacrificing his life for others he has forever altered the lives of everyone here," Hickenlooper said.

Swasey, 44, was one of three people killed after authorities say Robert Dear opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic on Nov. 27. Four other civilians and five other officers were wounded.

Larry Darnell, a fellow University of Colorado-Colorado Springs police officer who spoke at the funeral, said the wounded included a sheriff's deputy who was shot after going to check on Swasey. He said Swasey was not asked to go to the clinic but wanted to go after hearing on the police scanner than another officer had been shot.

Swasey was also a co-pastor at Hope Chapel, an evangelical church in Colorado Springs. A former champion ice dancer, he grew up training with future figure skating champion Nancy Kerrigan in his hometown of Melrose, Massachusetts. He moved to Colorado Springs to train at the Olympic Training Center in the 1990s before becoming a police officer six years ago.

Swasey's wife, Rachel, echoing several other speakers, said her husband's Christian faith was the focus of his life, including the way he approached his job. Speaking calmly, she said her husband's message to the world was "Put your faith in the Lord."

"The love of my life gave his life without regret," she said.

Also killed in the attack were two people who were accompanying friends to the clinic — Ke'Arre Stewart, 29, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and a father of two, and Jennifer Markovsky, 36, a mother of two who grew up in Hawaii in the tight-knit community of Waianae on Oahu.

A funeral for Markovsky is planned Saturday in Colorado Springs.

Stewart will be buried in his hometown of Waco, Texas. The Gazette of Colorado Springs reports that friends and family as well as strangers, including police officers, district attorney Dan May and a woman who said she was a Planned Parenthood patient, paid their respects to Stewart during a visitation there on Thursday night.

The flags were lowered after the Colorado Springs shooting and were still lowered when Hickenlooper announced Thursday they would remain lowered for the victims of the shootings in San Bernadino, Calif.