Fallen Harford deputy remembered as patriot, wonderful father and hero
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Version 0 of 1. Harford County Sheriff’s Office Senior Deputy Patrick Dailey was remembered Wednesday as a patriot, a wonderful father and a hero, as thousands of friends, family members and colleagues from across the nation said goodbye to the fallen officer. “By the show of solidarity we see here today, they are proud members of the thin blue line,” Gov. Larry Hogan said during Dailey’s funeral at the Mountain Christian Church New Life Center in Joppa. “They bring honor to their badges every day, who come together to lay their colleague to rest.” “We show an eternal gratitude of a state that will forever be in his debt,” Hogan said. Dailey and Senior Deputy Mark Logsdon were fatally shot Feb. 10 in Abingdon, Md., northeast of Baltimore, when they responded to a call about a man with outstanding warrants inside a Panera Bread restaurant. Police say David Evans, 68, shot Dailey in the restaurant and then Logsdon when Evans fled to a nearly parking lot. Evans was then shot by other deputies. The deputies’ deaths have touched off a huge outpouring of sympathy and support for the police from across Harford County and beyond. Dailey’s sons, Brian and Tyler, spoke at the ceremony. Brian read a poem and afterward said: “I can see now, my father was an amazing person. I heard so many stories I’ve never heard.” His father was a very humble man, Tyler said. “I never knew all things he had done,” Tyler said. “I knew he was a police officer, or deputy — he’d probably hit me if I said he was a police officer.” Harford County Executive Barry Glassman had a chance meeting with Dailey a few days before he was killed. “He stopped in to check on us at the [county administrative] building,” Glassman said. “We are shaken, but we are still steady, like those deputies who will carry on his footsteps, we are brave and not afraid,” Glassman said. Like the governor, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said the sheriff’s office is heartbroken. “In his final act, [Dailey] responded to a call to treat kindly a man he did not know and to give his life for the community he loved,” Gahler said of the circumstances that led up to the fatal shooting. “However, our agency is not, cannot and will not be broken,” he said. “The men and women of this office are heroes, every single one, they continue and have continued since last Wednesday to provide public safety services to our Harford County community,” the sheriff said. “They do it with heavy hearts and tearful eyes, but they do with unmatched strength and willpower.” After the funeral service, Dailey’s casket was brought outside, where hundreds of uniformed law enforcement officers lined up at attention for a brief end-of-watch ceremony. As eight police helicopters hovered, a 911 dispatcher’s voice came over a loudspeaker, reciting Dailey’s badge number, 186, and the time and date when he was fatally shot: 11:56 a.m. Feb. 10, 2016. After a 21-gun salute, a solitary bugler played taps. Brian and Tyler Dailey, both volunteer firefighters like their father, rode on the back of the truck for the trip from the funeral home to Mountain Christian Church. Eleven National Capital Park Police officers were mounted on horses atop the hill overlooking the New Life Center. The unit of 11 horses, mostly Clydesdales, not only patrols but also attends special functions such as funerals. “We are here to honor our brother,” Senior Sgt. Mary Devine said. “Each of us recognizes that on any given day that could be us. And we are a family. If anyone in our family is hurt or injured or killed, of course it affects all of us.” — Baltimore Sun |