Slain Charlotte officer remembered as hard-charging cop with soft heart for his family
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Friends, colleagues and the wife of fallen Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Joshua Eyer remembered him Friday as a hard-charging outwardly stern cop who also peppered friends with “how's things” texts and showered love on his wife and young son.
Thousands packed the sanctuary at Charlotte's First Baptist Church for Eyer's memorial service, badges crossed with black ribbons, as they honored the life and sacrifice of a man who would push as hard to arrest a homicide suspect as he would someone who stole a sandwich.
Eyer was killed Monday along with three other officers and the suspect they were trying to arrest as they tried to serve a felon possessing a gun weapon warrant in a Charlotte neighborhood. The first three officers were killed as they arrived at the home. Eyer was shot as he rushed to help his fallen comrades.
“Full speed, no matter the cost. That couldn't have been more in evidence by his actions Monday," said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Detective Thomas Maddox who worked in Eyer's division for five years.
Eyer's funeral is the first of four around Charlotte after the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement in one incident since five officers were killed by a sniper during a protest in Dallas in 2016.
Also killed Monday were Sam Poloche and William Elliott of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks. Elliott's memorial service is Thursday at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory. Times for the other services have not been announced.
Eyer's body in a flag-draped coffin was brought from police headquarters on a horse-drawn caisson three blocks to the church where the late evangelist Billy...