Details about the life of Officer Eric Talley are beginning to trickle in. H was fatally shot by the gunman in yesterday’s horrific shooting in Boulder, Colorado.
Officer Talley’s father released the following statement:
“He took his job as a police officer very seriously. He had seven children. The youngest is 7 years old. He loved his kids and his family more than anything. He joined the police force when he was 40 years old. He was looking for a job to keep himself off of the front lines and was learning to be a drone operator. He didn’t want to put his family through something like this and he believed in Jesus Christ.”
His sister tweeted:
Officer Eric Talley is my big brother. He died today in the Boulder shooting. My heart is broken. I cannot explain how beautiful he was and what a devastating loss this is to so many. Fly high my sweet brother. You always wanted to be a pilot (damn color blindness). Soar.
I can’t even begin to imagine what his wife and children are going through this day. My God console them and all who loved him.
UPDATE: CNA has more, including a statement from the Archbishop of Denver, Samuel Aquila and details about the plans for Officer Talley’s funeral.
Aquila said that Talley “has been described as a man of character and strong faith, a loving father to seven children, a husband who cared deeply for his family, and a soldier for Christ.”
He added that “Officer Talley regularly stopped by St. Martin de Porres [Parish] in Boulder and participated in its events, even though he wasn’t a parishioner there.”
“St. Martin de Porres, the patron of the parish, was someone who experienced tragedy and hardship in his life, and so, we ask for his intercession in these difficult circumstances, that God would bring good out of this great evil,” the archbishop said, promising prayers for Talley’s family.
A funeral for Talley will be celebrated on Monday, March 29 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver. It will be a solemn high Mass offered in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, according to an announcement, which added that capacity may be restricted due to COVID-19 regulations.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord…
