With 22 years spent in the Watsonville Police Department and many relationships built in Santa Cruz County, the San Benito County sheriff was hit especially hard when he learned about the two officers killed on duty in late February.
“At the end of the day, you go home and you maybe don’t know just how fortunate you were until something that you’ve done hundreds of times goes really wrong for somebody,” Sheriff Darren Thompson said in reflecting about the death of two Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputies.
Thompson, a lieutenant in Watsonville before getting elected sheriff at the end of 2010, was a common acquaintenence of longtime Santa Cruz County Sgt. Loran “Butch” Baker, as the two entered the county’s law enforcement community at about the same time and had many experiences working alongside each other on cases or events, the sheriff said. Thompson wasn’t as well acquainted with the other victim, Detective Elizabeth Butler, but she did serve for several years on a special task force assignment that involved Thompson’s staff members.
Baker and Butler were the two county officers killed in late February by Jeremy Goulet, a former military member with a long history of criminal offenses before arriving in Santa Cruz last fall, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Thompson said he and other law enforcement leaders in Santa Cruz County have a “very tight relationship.” He said he met with several of them in the event’s aftermath and offered assistance from the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office – to provide full coverage of Aromas – though the Santa Cruz department didn’t end up needing it.
He said he and those longtime colleagues now in leadership “in essence” have grown up together in law enforcement.
“So those are my lifelong colleagues and friends,” Thompson said. “And it’s been very, very emotional for me to see them suffering to that degree.”
He said the San Benito County staff “has taken this very hard” and continues “grieving for their comrades” in Santa Cruz.
He also mentioned that these types of tragedies “keep you from complacency” as an officer and said that in entering the profession, officers must accept the risks involved.
