WEST VALLEY CITY — People by the hundreds lined up along State Street in South Salt Lake to pay their respects to fallen South Salt Lake Officer David Romrell.
As the procession exited I-80 onto State Street, it was greeted by students from Woodrow Wilson Elementary School. Some of them had never seen an officer’s procession before. But, third-grader Addison Bean was proud to be out there with her classmates.
“It’s important to support police officers because they do a lot of stuff for us,” she says.
For students like Jasmin Gomez, this was much more than a chance to get out of class.
She says, “I think it’s helpful. I think it’s good to see the police department.”
As the kids were smiling and waving their flags at the cars in the procession, people inside the limousines rolled down their windows to wave and smile back.
Among the others saying goodbye to Romrell were Nancy Macias and John Clayton. They knew Romrell after he was called to their apartment to handle an emergency. Macias says her son was “mixed-up with bad people” and
“He told him, ‘Hey, your mom really cares about you. You need to think about where you’re headed.’ My son really took it to heart,” Macias says.
Clayton says Romrell made the neighborhood safer, just by being around.
“He would just do a drive around the apartment complex to make sure everything was OK and make sure there was nothing bad happening,” he says.
Law enforcement agencies around Utah and the nation sent representatives to the Romrell’s funeral to pay tribute as well to the fallen officer on Wednesday.
Many agencies and Utah leaders expressed their feelings on Twitter.