Police gather for funeral of slain Ontario constable
Written by on March 12th, 2010 in Latest News.
Thousands of police officers gathered in Wingham, Ont., to pay their final respects to OPP Const. Vu Pham, who was shot and killed in the line of duty this week.
Police officers from across the country gather for the funeral of killer OPP Const. Vu Pham. (Cheryl Krawchuk, CBC News)
A sea of blue and red officers stood in silence as Pham’s grim-faced colleagues slowly carried his Ontario-flag-draped coffin into the community centre where the service was being held.
Officers, friends and family, including Pham’s widow Heather and their children, followed inside.
Busloads of officers from across Canada had descended on the southwestern Ontario town where the funeral was being held Friday afternoon.
Pham, a 15-year OPP veteran, is to be honoured in a 90-minute ceremony followed by a procession of police officers, who will line the streets of the town.
Heather Pham, the constable’s widow, and OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino will be among those speaking at the service.
“Monday morning started like any other day for us, full of life and promise,” Heather Pham wrote in the funeral guide. “Vu was the like of our life. Small did we know that our last goodbye was our final goodbye, forever.
“Today starts another journey for us. I know and feel in my heart that Vu is watching over all of us and will be with us until we meet again in heaven.”
Const. Vu Pham, 37, of the Ontario Provincial Police, was fatally shot Monday near Seaforth, Ont. (OPP/Canadian Press)
Wingham, a town of about 3,000, is expected to be shut down for the ceremony, which will start at 1 pm. ET.
The funeral comes a day after Fred Preston, the suspect in the killing, died in hospital after being shot several times in a shootout with police.
Pham and two other officers had tried to pull over a pickup truck when they were confronted by an armed man. Pham was shot and the driver and officers exchanged gunfire.
Pham died several hours after being flown to London’s Health Sciences Centre, with his wife and three children — Tyler, 12, Jordan, 10, and Joshua, 7 — at his side.
Pham, originally from Vietnam, was taken in as a boy by Dan Thompson, a southwestern Ontario pastor who later went to northern Ontario, where Pham and his three new siblings were raised.
Pham is the force’s 104th officer to be killed in the line of duty since its inception 100 years ago.
With files from The Canadian Press
