Anniversary Observed by Moment of Silence at Police Officers’ Ball

MONTROSE – July 25 will mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Sgt. David Kinterknecht, the much-loved member of the Montrose Police Department who was gunned down on a domestic call in 2009.

Montrose Police Chief Tom Chinn said Kinterknecht will be commemorated at the first-ever Police Officers’ Ball Friday night at the Montrose Pavilion.

Kinterknecht was shot by a man who was barricaded in his garage, who then turned the gun on himself and died at the scene. Kinterknecht died later that night at Montrose Memorial Hospital. Also seriously wounded were Officers Larry Witte and Rodney Ragsdale.

Kinterknecht, a husband and father, was a native of Montrose, went through the Montrose public schools and had been with the Montrose force for 10 years, serving before that with sheriffs’ offices in Montrose and San Miguel counties.

Hundreds of people turned out for Kinterknecht’s two-hour memorial service, and hundreds more lined the streets of Montrose, standing in respectful silence as the funeral procession slowly made its way to Cedar Cemetery. The flag-draped coffin was carried on the Leapin’ Lena, an antique fire truck that Kinterknecht loved.

Police and firefighters from all over the state came to honor Kinterknecht, walking hand-in-hand and arm-in-arm behind Kinterknecht’s family to the cemetery.

The observance of the first anniversary of their fellow officer’s death will probably be marked by a moment of silence at the event, Chinn said. “I don’t know what else we can do; everything else has been said, at least twice,” he said.

Police department employees are still struggling with the death of the much-loved officer, Chinn said.

“It’s still pretty fresh, and it’s hard to believe a year has passed,” he said. “Those feelings are certainly still very close to the surface.”

Counseling has been available to staff since the day after Kinterknecht was killed, Chinn said, but the healing process is slow.

“It’s hard to believe that something like this happened to David,” he said. “He was the type of person, the only person I know, who from the time he was 10 or 12 years old, hung around the police department.

“He knew exactly what he wanted to do in this life, he grew up in this town and died in this town doing what he loved to do. He’ll never be replaced and he’ll never be forgotten.”

Chinn said that Kinterknecht’s wife Kathy and daughter’s Amanda and Andrea are doing as well as can be expected.

“You have to move forward; you can’t live in the past, and David would be the first one to say that,” he said. “I think his wife and kids are moving forward, but it’s hard and I don’t know if you ever really get over something like this.”