HOUSTON (AP) — Thousands of law enforcement officers stood at attention to form a wall Friday outside one of Houston's largest churches as a 21-gun salute and flyover by police helicopters were carried out in honor of a slain sheriff's deputy.
The family of #DarrenGoforth enters Second Baptist Church before his service pic.twitter.com/65TwtcKyMJ
— CodyChronPhotog (@CodyJDuty) September 4, 2015The symbolic gestures followed the funeral for Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth, who was gunned down at a gas pump a week ago.
A young boy shows his emotion as he looks at the casket following the funeral for Harris County Sheriff Deputy Darren Goforth at Second Baptist Church on September 4, 2015, in Houston, Texas. Deputy Darren Goforth was fatally shot at a gas station on Tuesday September 1, 2015, in Houston. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
"We come to this place with heavy hearts, and have questions we don't really understand," Lt. Don Savell, the chaplain for the sheriff's department, said as the ceremony at Second Baptist Church began. "We gather to share the grief we all feel and perhaps to find the strength to bear our sorrow and to look for seeds of hope."
The church, which holds 7,000 people, was filled. Some officers stood outside and watched the service on big-screen televisions, while other spectators gathered outside the suburban convenience store where Goforth was killed to view the funeral on screens set up there. Flowers, balloons, posters and written messages in memory of Goforth still surround the pump where he was shot.
The 47-year-old deputy was in uniform when he was killed while putting fuel in his patrol car. A 30-year-old Houston man is charged with capital murder in the slaying. Investigators have said they're still trying to determine a motive.
Bagpipes played "Amazing Grace" and an honor guard somberly saluted Goforth's flag-draped casket, then slowly marched away in formation as the service began.
"Darren Goforth was one of the good guys, one that made a difference," Sheriff Ron Hickman said during the funeral. He said the deputy's life was taken "senselessly and in an act of cowardice" the night of Aug. 28 but that he and others "will answer calls in Darren's honor."
The sheriff said 11,000 officers from "coast to coast" had come to pay respects.
Outside the church following the service, which lasted nearly two hours, Hickman presented the folded flag from the casket to Goforth's wife, Kathleen.
A line of patrol cars formed a large cross in the parking lot, and two Houston fire trucks with ladders extended formed an arch with a flag extended at the top. People lined streets as the funeral procession drove away. A private burial was planned at a cemetery.
Officers in Texas also held moments of silence at their various departments around the time of the funeral.
Texas Deputy Darren Goforth's best friend gave a moving tribute to the slain police officer at his funeral today.
https://t.co/sJPWXbu0bM
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 4, 2015The killing brought out strong emotions in the area's law enforcement community, with Hickman suggesting last weekend that it could have been influenced by heightened national tension over the treatment of African-Americans by police. Goforth was white and the man charged with killing him, Shannon Miles, is black.
Deputy Goforth and his family (Image source: KHOU-TV)
Records show Miles has a history of mental health problems and arrests.
The Rev. Ed Young, pastor at Second Baptist, told those attending Friday's funeral that he fears evil has reached an "almost epidemic stage" with attacks on those who "wear the blue" — a reference to the police uniform.
But he said signs of hope have surfaced in the wake of Goforth's death. He said people have been supportive of law enforcement officers and openly prayed for them.
"Things are changing," Young said. "Suddenly there's a swelling of people. ... There will be a new Houston, a new Texas, a new America.
"And you can write it down. We have your back," he told officers as the funeral crowd stood and applauded.
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