I covered Officer Beth Haynes death and funeral with our now St Augustine Fla bureau chief John Graham. Her funeral procession was magnificent. Thousands of Boulderites came out to honor her and the Boulder Police department. We lined the diagonal and all of 28th street all the way to highway 36 at Colorado Boulevard. At 28th and Iris Boulder Fire department created an arch with extended ladders as the procession made the turn onto 28th street. Hundreds of police cars from all the surrounding states came by.

I stood with a Camera on the corner and video’d the whole thing. John Graham attended the Funeral. I went to Boulder PD and interviewed officers the day of. There were candles and flowers left in parking lot. Interesting our coverage that day sealed a bond with officers of Boulder PD. It is a dangerous job and one never knows when the Grimm reaper will come a knocking.

It was also a wake up call to Boulder PD. There are crazy people out there who won’t think twice about shooting, stabbing or running over a cop.  Beth Haynes ran into one such very pissed off middle easterner the night she got killed.

There is no such thing as a routine domestic violence call either. They all have the potential to turn deadly. That is why officers never go into one alone. Beth Haynes made a fatal mistake that night. She proceeded into the apartment complex parking lot instead of waiting for backup on the street. She only had three years on the force and little experience and minimal training with a high level of violence.

Her choice of firearm was not the best either. 9mm is considered a very small arm with not much knock down power. A 38sp or 357 revolver has quite a bit more. Or a 40 millimeter Marine Corps Beretta has even more and is easy for a small women to handle. It is a show stopper.

One thing is for sure. Boulder cops choice of firearms have changed since Beth Haynes was gunned down. The department completely revised their training programs. They get a lot more. More cops carry more guns and knives too. 3 guns is not uncommon.  A police officer can never have too much training. Women cops need even more than men; Just because of the mere physical challenges in violent situations. Most of us don’t go to work each day with a high probability of getting into a gun fight or having a drunk throw a molotov cocktail into our car. Boulder cops do. And they put their life on the line for us every day.

Boulder still isn’t as violent as Denver. But we all need to learn how to stay safe and protected. The PD needs all of it’s budget requests for training.

Jann Scott’s Journal

from Boulder Colorado