Family, Friends & Fellow Officers Remember...

Well Noah, it's been over a year since I left a reflection for you and it's going on 27 years since we lost you.
It's hard to believe all the years that have gone by and to this day I still think of you, and I can't help but wonder where you'd be right now if you had finished out your career.
A tragic event took you from us, cheated law enforcement of a damn good cop, and denied young officers of a mentor that they would have been proud to follow.
Keep watching over us from up there, rest easy and remember you are missed.

A. Gonzalez C.S.I.
Cochise County Sheriff.

July 26, 2005

When a police officer dies, it is not just the agency who loses an officer but the entire nation as well. And all of law enforcement mourns.

I salute you for your service and honor you for your sacrifice.

April 12, 2005

During the early years of my career I had the good fortune to work with "little bear" as he was called by the truck drivers that drove through District 9, Benson and Willcox areas.
We recovered a stolen vehicle out of Phoenix together in my area of patrol which was Willcox, and I still remember what a professional and considerate person he was.
It was an honor and privilege to have known and worked with him and I still think of him from time to time and of his family that suffered a terrible loss.

A.Gonzalez C.S.I.
Cochise County Sheriff.

April 29, 2004

I was a youth when Officer Merrill was killed, but it left an impression even then. Benson is a small town and we all knew each other. Officer Merrill was well liked and the community felt his loss.

Years later fate would have me writing citations, investigating wrecks, and making arrests in the very same area which he was killed, occasionally at the very spot. A stone monument has been placed in the westbound Texas Canyon rest area and I stop and pay my respects anytime I happen to be there. It is difficult to describe, but it has always giving me a sense of reverence and feeling of kinship. Reverence because of his sacrifice for his family and our State, and because of his family's strength to carry on. Kinship because I was just a sandy haired boy, who would get stars in his eyes anytime one of those white cars with the blue stars drove by. Now I see those same stars in other little boys eyes when I drive past and I realize I would be calling him "Mac", as the others did. As I said, It's difficult to describe, but its an emotion I try to feel from time to time.

God bless you Mac, and God bless and keep your family.

Fellow Officer
Arizona Department of Public Safety