FELLOW officers and family members paid tribute to Sgt. Ryan Russell (above) who was killed 10 years ago while on duty.
SGT. RUSSELL’s wife Christine and son Nolan.
Toronto Police officers and the family of Sargeant Ryan Russell said prayers and paid their respects to the slain officer on Tuesday to mark the 10th anniversary of his death.
A small ceremony was held on January 12 inside 52 Division where Russell worked when he was killed while officers from the force’s Mounted Unit paid their respects outdoors.
Chief Jim Ramer spoke, as did Pastor Wendell Gibbs and Supt. Hugh Ferguson, who was Russell’s boss at the time. Ferguson read part of the eulogy he delivered at Russell’s funeral.
Russell, who would have been 35, was killed on duty on January 12, 2011; never saw his toddler son, Nolan, grow up to attend schools and become a fine teenager.
“I wish I could turn back time,” Russell’s wife, Christine, told guests. “I wish I could get back the life that I had.”
She is raising Nolan, 12, outside Toronto because the city holds too many memories from that tragic time.
Russell was killed while attempting to stop the driver of a stolen snow plow when he was struck on Avenue Rd., north of Davenport Rd. The six-month sergeant later succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
“He was out doing his job in the early-morning hours in a very dangerous situation, and put his life on the line, and tragically has lost his life doing his job,” Chief Bill Blair said the day of the tragic death. “It was a day the city will never forget.”
More than 10,000 people crowded into the Metro Convention Centre for his funeral and there was not a dry eye when his widow walked in, holding tight to the hand of their two-year-old.
Found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder by a jury in 2013, Richard Kachkar, now 54, was granted an absolute discharge this past summer by the Ontario Review Board.
“He is fully and completely a free man. That’s it,” Russell reflects. “It’s a major disappointment.”
Two weeks after Kachkar’s absolute discharge, Russell received more bad news: the police horse named in honour of her slain husband had died suddenly in his stall from eating a poisonous plant. “It was a crazy July,” she says.
Christine calls the 10th anniversary of her late husband’s tragic death bittersweet and cannot believe a decade has passed. “I don’t think anybody can. Where did the time go?
She said every day since her husband was killed has been difficult, but she’s tried to shield Nolan by not talking about how his father died.