A memorial is set up for RCMP Const. Rick O’Brien, in front of the Ridge Meadows detachment in Maple Ridge, B.C., on Saturday, September 23, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
LANGLEY, B.C. – Thousands of officers in uniform filled the event centre in Langley, B.C., to attend a regimental funeral for RCMP Const. Rick O’Brien who was killed last month in Coquitlam.
Officers from around the province, including RCMP, other police services, firefighters, military and others attended the ceremony for O’Brien, who is the tenth police officer to be killed in Canada since September of last year.
The father of six was 51 when he was killed Sept. 22 while he and other officers were executing a search warrant at a home.
The mourning officers had marched to the event centre in a procession on Wednesday, behind the hearse carrying O’Brien’s coffin, the RCMP Pipe Band and a riderless horse to symbolize a fallen member.
Langley resident Ingrid Davies said that as the mother of a Mountie she decided to attend the procession to pay tribute to the fallen officer.
“It hits very close to home when something like this happens but we just try to stay positive and we hope his family can find some peace,” she said.
Betty Lew, whose daughter is also a Mountie, said every parent of an officer worries about their child’s safety when they are on the job, and she felt it was important to pay tribute to O’Brien.
“They serve the citizens all around. They protect us. So, we should be able to protect them.”
O’Brien came to the Mounties late in life, joining in 2016 after a career of working with at-risk children, and was decorated early in his career for bravery after helping to rescue victims from a home invasion.
Supt. Wendy Mehat, the officer in charge at Ridge Meadows RCMP, where O’Brien spent all of his career, said after O’Brien was killed that he loved visiting schools and helping students, while calling his death senseless and heartbreaking.
A fundraiser organized by the National Police Federation Benevolent Foundation has raised more than $150,000 for O’Brien’s family.
A 25-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the officer’s death.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2023.
