Dec. 08--A year after Virginia Tech Police Officer Deriek Crouse was killed on campus, those who worked with him grieve through laughter, tears and service to others.
"It's like it happened yesterday," said Officer Jason Hardymon, standing just feet from where Crouse was killed. "It's been a year for everybody else, but for a lot of us it feels like yesterday."
Hardymon was the second officer to arrive at the scene where Crouse was shot while still in his police cruiser in a Cassell Coliseum parking lot on Dec. 8, 2011.
Today Hardymon was among about 250 others who attended a memorial service that included the dedication of a permanent memorial made of Hokie Stone. During the service as his widow, children, aunts, parents and relatives sat, his law enforcement family filled in behind.
The tribute was for Crouse, but also for what he embodied: a man dedicated to family and community service.
"We will continue to serve. It is who we are; it is what we do," said Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum during the service.
For Hardymon that philosophy has helped during the past year as he remembers Crouse daily but continues to embrace the job he chose.
But there have also been moments of levity as they remember an officer who was fond of jokes and laughing.
"Each day Deriek has been in our hearts and our minds," Filnchum said. "Some days we have smiled. Other days we have cried."
For Virginia Tech Officer Kendrah Cline, a final laugh and Crouse's ear-to-ear grin on the day he died has remained ingrained in her memory. Crouse was struggling with the door handle on his police cruiser, unaware that Cline was watching the scene unfold while seated inside her vehicle.
When he realized, the two laughed together.
"I cherish it because in that moment, that final moment, we shared a laugh," Cline said at the memorial service.
Copyright 2012 - The Roanoke Times, Va.
