Thousands of friends, family and coworkers paid tribute to Eugene Police Department officer Chris Kilcullen in a memorial service Friday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena, celebrating a man unfailingly devoted to his family and career.
During the two-and-a-half-hour ceremony, speakers remembered 43-year-old Kilcullen for his sense of humor and regaling tales of his sterling reputation in the department and the community. However, an overarching sense of loss permeated the ceremony.
“In Chris, we’ve lost one of life’s most precious gifts, and that’s a genuinely good person,” Lane County Circuit Court Judge Debra Vogt said.
A 12-year EPD veteran, Kilcullen was killed a week ago during a traffic stop on Interstate 105. A 56-year-old Springfield resident, Cheryl D. Kidd, was arrested and charged with aggravated murder for Kilcullen’s death.
“Chris would be angry at her. Honestly, he’d be throwing down a lot of F-bombs; he gets the rage,” family friend Lance McDonald read from a letter written by Kilcullen’s wife, Kristie. “Please, do not let the rage consume your life and be destructive. Chris would hate that.”
Everyone who spoke at the ceremony discussed how Kilcullen made welcome those he interacted with, from a homeless man he took to Taco Bell before taking to the police station to people who would shake his hand after he gave them traffic tickets.
“For the community, you lost one of your finest officers,” said EPD Lt. Jennifer Bills, who was Kilcullen’s supervisor. “He was a native son of Eugene, and he loved the city and loved being a police officer.”
Although Kilcullen helped initiate the department’s Crisis Intervention Team, he shifted his position within the department so he could spend more time with his wife, Kristie, stepdaughter, Sidney, and daughter, Katie Ann.
“Chris was the best bonus dad ever,” Sidney wrote in a letter read aloud by McDonald. “You could search the entire world and not find another guy like Chris.”
Among the thousands present at the ceremony were hundreds of law enforcement officers from throughout the region, including a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman who carried the Canadian flag into the ceremony.
“One good thing that I hope comes out of this unspeakable tragedy is that people see law enforcement in a different light,” said Kilcullen’s father, John Kilcullen. “I want the community to remember that they go home to their families at the end of their shifts.”
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