A year ago this month, a text came through to the City Council. Two officers down. I remember the horror of that evening, the kind that doesn’t leave you.

Then came August 18th. As Eric and Lee were brought back home, I watched this community do what it does best. Main Street filled up. People stood shoulder to shoulder, rows deep, for two men they wanted to honor. I was touched beyond words by that unity, by the love this valley has for the officers who protect it. That day showed me exactly how we all fit together.

This report isn’t mine to write. I asked Councilman Brent Jex to write it instead. Brent is an officer. He lived that night alongside his brothers, he stays in touch with every one of them, and he serves this city on the council. Healing for our department is going to take time, and it only comes with time. I wanted Brent to have the room to say some of what he and his fellow officers are carrying, in his own words.

So I’ll step back now. Please read what he wrote, and give our officers the grace this month asks for.

Mayor Bret Rohde

Nearly one year ago, our lives – our collective lives, changed forever.   The night of August 17th was horrendous.    Eric and Lee were killed in my own neighborhood.  Both left behind loving wives, each with two children.  Eric’s young, Lee’s grown.   The rabid sting that it left with our department can’t be undone, yet this community found a way to shore us up when we needed it most.   August 18, 2025, as we escorted them to the funeral homes, we witnessed an event that changed us all.    Passing each freeway overpass and seeing the support – from Salt Lake all the way to Tremonton and on to Logan.  However when we exited the freeway at Main Street, the site was overwhelming.

Every inch of roadway down Main Street seemed to be lined, 2-4 rows deep.   As we made our way to our historic city center, it was so crowded I don’t know how we were able to pass the single lane of escorting vehicles through, and that held as we turned north on 300 E to the first funeral home where we left Lee.   Proceeding to Logan with Eric was special as well, but the impact of this community had every last one of us in tears of amazement.   August 18th showed us how this community feels and supports.   I’ve been to many of these in my career and I have NEVER witnessed support like this community showed.  None of us could contain our emotions, and we didn’t want to.   This entire community lost two good cops, two good men, two brothers and we all felt it together.

I’ve had the very unfortunate experience of losing friends in the line of duty.  Three prior to Eric and Lee, and I was involved with two of them, escorting one to the hospital where he would be pronounced and I would have to make the notification back.   I’ve been to too many of these scenes, seen too many faces of officers experiencing now what I first experienced on November 18, 2002.    Too many since then.   May there be no more.   As we approach the anniversary of their deaths, as we continue as an agency and as a neighborhood towards healing, and holding their families as close as we can, we are grateful to this community for the continued support and please give us a little patience and a little grace as this time of year is hitting us all, remembering where we were, how we felt, what we lost.   As we approach this, we also remember August 18th and THAT…….that experience is what gets us through.   It’s what we do from here that honors their memory forever.    We have to love and live, not be afraid to laugh again, respect the memory of our fallen brothers by living life to it’s fullest, not shrinking from the fear.   We don’t get to choose the pain, but we get to choose what we learn from it.