Thousands of people, including police officers from throughout California and Gov. Jerry Brown, attended the memorial service on Thursday.
With thousands in attendance at HP Pavilion Thursday—including dignitaries like Gov. Jerry Brown, attorney general Kamala Harris and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and a sea of uniformed law enforcement officials from all over—there were moments that the service for fallen Santa Cruz police officers Sgt. Loran “Butch” Baker and Det. Elizabeth Butler felt more like a rally than a memorial.
There were speeches that struck inspirational tones, and SCPD Deputy Chief Steve Clark even went into a full-on stand-up routine, at the request of Baker’s family, who asked him to “keep it light and make them laugh.”
“That’s exactly what Butch would have wanted today,” Clark said, remembering his friend Baker as an exemplary officer with the heart of a prankster.
And yet, a couple of devastatingly emotional eulogies brought home the shock that the entire Santa Cruz community has felt since it lost its first officers ever to violence in the line of duty. Baker and Butler were shot and killed Feb. 26 while investigating a suspect in Santa Cruz. Supervisor Zach Friend at one point in the service compared it to the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, saying “This is the biggest emotional earthquake our community has ever felt.”
SCPD Chief Kevin Vogel, the first speaker, started the service off by admitting “This is not something we’ve ever dealt with before in our department, and for all of us, the pain is still too fresh.”
But what drove that point home to a visibly stunned and even sobbing audience was a eulogy of Baker by her partner Peter Wu, who came to the stage holding their five-and-a-half year old son, Joaquin, who wore a police cap and greeted the crowd with a shy “hi.”
Wu revealed what he had whispered to Butler at her casket, that he would take care of their two boys and make sure they knew what a great person their mother had been.
“I miss you so much, Beth,” Wu said before leaving the stage. “We will miss you so much. Goodbye, my love.”
The politicians and fellow officers in attendance praised Baker and Butler as outstanding officers who were a “perfect fit” for the Santa Cruz community. Clark’s eulogy for Baker took the audience’s mind off their sorrow for a moment and actually got them to laugh by noting the remarkable resemblance between himself and Gov. Brown (which apparently Baker himself had originally pointed out), and telling of pranks Baker was involved with—like the placement of an ad in the paper for a 6am Sunday garage sale at Clark’s house, or a fellow officer’s house being put on the market for sale through a local realtor when that officer was on vacation.
But the emotion of the moment got to Clark, too. “I hope I’m not going to be the first guy to cry at this podium here today,” he said.
Just as emotional was Butler’s sister Alexis Butler recalling the last weekend she spent with Elizabeth, and a Father’s Day letter read by Baker’s daughter Jillian while his son Adam—also an SCPD officer—stood silently at attention next to her.
“Daddy,” she finished, “I love you more than you will ever know.”
