A community came together to honor Kent police Officer Diego Moreno. Moreno was 35 years old and an eight-year veteran of the Kent Police Department. He died Sunday morning while he was responding to a pursuit. Days later, hundreds of people turned out for the public vigil in his honor.
A chorus of "Amazing Grace" opened the vigil that was led by city leaders including the mayor of Kent, the city council president, the chief of police and Moreno's widow. Gerald and Bree Osborne were in the crowd. Gerald summed it up by saying simply, “love still showed up today.”
Shelly Moreno addressed the approximately 300 people at the vigil. “I have received so much support and love,” she said. Her father, Mike Martin, watched as his daughter spoke and then spoke to KIRO 7 about his late son-in-law. “I couldn't have asked for a better son-in-law. There's not a better man on the face of this Earth. He was wonderful to my daughter and my grandkids.”
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Shelly Moreno said her family at the Kent Police Department have held her close since learning of her husband’s death. “Thank you for grieving with me. Your presence calms my sorrow.”
Gerald Osborne admitted the tragedy galvanized people to support the Moreno family and each other. “If there was an absence of love, we wouldn't all be out here right now,” he said.
Martin said Moreno’s sacrifice was in line with who he was as a person. “He truly put himself at the hands of anybody who needed help.”
Authorities say Moreno was killed as he was responding to a police pursuit. They said he was placing stop spikes in the road to slow the car down when he was hit by another patrol car.
WSP Chaplain Tom Durrant responded to the scene but attended the memorial not as a chaplain but as one person honoring another. “There are no magic words for pain, I can tell you that. There's nothing that will take that away.”
Durrant admitted the days since and the days going forward without Moreno would be trying. “Life can be really hard and this is probably one of the better examples,” he said.
Shelly Moreno closed her address simply by saying “let us remember the times of love and laughter and heal each other. Thank you.”
King County prosecutors have charged 16-year-old Emiliano Garcia with second degree murder and said he was driving the car that was involved in the chase. Prosecutors said he will be tried as an adult.
Cox Media Group
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