A month may have passed since Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was slain on the job, but grief over his death has not subsided in Southern Arizona.
More than 1,200 people turned out today for a memorial service honoring the 40-year-old agent, who was killed Dec. 14 near Rio Rico in what authorities described as a shootout with border bandits.
Kino Stadium, formerly known as Tucson Electric Park, was a sea of flags and uniforms as a border patrol chaplain opened the ceremony with tears in his eyes.
“Mere words cannot express our sorrow when one of our own falls,” said Mark Vander Lee, a chaplain for the Border Patrol’s Nogales Station.
Terry, who served as a Marine in the Iraq War and as a police officer in his hometown in Michigan before joining the Border Patrol, is “an example of strength and devotion to duty,” Vander Lee said,
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“Brian was a man who believed in service,” added Kurt Martin, who spoke on behalf of the slain agent’s family members, who traveled from Michigan to attend the Tucson memorial.
Terry knew the dangers of his job but “loved what he did, and who he did it with,” Martin said, addressing the hundred of fellow agents in attendance. “You now have someone watching over you.”
