The people of Omaha, Neb. paid their respects Tuesday to officer Kerrie Orozco, who was killed in a shootout a day before her maternity leave when Marcus Wheeler opened fire on the officers who were after him.
The 29-year-old Iowa native's family, close friends, colleagues and law enforcers honored her at a church funeral in Omaha. Others watched a video feed at the Century Link Center arena in downtown Omaha to show their honor to the cop.
Orozco gave birth to her daughter prematurely on Feb. 17. Her original due date was Tuesday, which sadly became her funeral date.
Her daughter was supposed to be released from the hospital prenatal care unit the day after Orozco was killed. Donations poured for Orozco's family, including for a college fund for Olivia Ruth.
Orozco was the first female officer for Omaha to be killed in the line of duty, as well as the first of the city's officers to die while serving in over a decade, according to the Associated Press.
"I can't think of a better representative of our profession than Kerrie Orozco," Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said at the service. Schmaderer helped train Orozco when she was a police recruit, and they became friends thereafter.
"She got people to look past the fact that she was a police officer," he said, AP reported. "I see her legacy as that of breaking down barriers."
"She treated everyone with respect," said Omaha probation officer Kristina Reiter, who also worked with Orozco. "Even those people she arrested, she didn't talk down to or belittle."
Thousands of people lined the streets along the procession route despite the rain and cool temperature.
Orozco was a native of nearby town Walnut and a stepmother to Natalia, 8, and Santiago, 6, who are the children of her husband, Hector Orozco Lopez. The family lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
She was a volunteer for the Girl Scouts, Special Olympics and various community outreach programs and was a recipient of the Police Department's Outstanding Volunteer Service Award this spring, according to the Daily Mail. Orozco also had coached an inner-city Omaha baseball team for years, where she was known as "Coach K."
Orozco's casket was taken to a Council Bluffs cemetery after the service.
