URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/news/breaking/apking08-23-05.htm

Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Slain APD Officer King Remembered at Service
By Felicia Fonseca/
Associated Press
   
   Family, friends and fellow officers from around the state said their farewells Tuesday to one of two Albuquerque police officers killed during a shooting rampage that also claimed the lives of a state worker and two young employees at a motorcycle shop.
    The funeral for Officer Michael King drew more than 3,000 people to Legacy Church in Albuquerque. Burial was scheduled at Sunset Gardens Memorial, and a phalanx of motorcycle police officers and cruisers led the procession to the cemetery, sirens blaring.
    Police Chief Ray Schultz told the service that King had protected presidents and other dignitaries, and, as if talking to the slain officer, said, "You now protect the saints and patrol the streets of heaven.''
    The church was filled with photographs of King with his family and others — even with the current President Bush. Before the service, officers tied blue ribbons on the antennas of police cars and the hundreds of officers from all over the state who attended had black ribbons across their badges.
    At the entrance to the church, a large flag was hoisted between two ladder trucks.
    Albuquerque Police Department chaplain Steven Voris said King was known for his forgiveness.
    "Michael's wife Debbie is convinced Michael would have offered forgiveness to the man who shot him,'' Voris said.
    He called King and the other slain officer, Richard Smith, heroes.
    "It is unfortunate it takes a violent death in the community for people to realize who their heroes are,'' the chaplain said.
    King, 50, and Smith, 47, were gunned down last Thursday outside the home of John Hyde, a 48-year-old man with a history of mental illness that they had been asked to take to a hospital for an evaluation.
    Smith's funeral is set for 10 a.m. Thursday at Albuquerque's Hoffmantown Church.
    Police on Monday linked Hyde to the killing of Department of Transportation worker Ben Lopez through ballistics from a fairly rare revolver — a 1918 Webley Mark VI, according to Michael Haag, a forensics scientist with the department.
    Hyde faces an open count of murder and tampering with evidence in the Lopez case, according to a warrant filed late Monday.
    He was arraigned over the weekend in the deaths of the two officers and motorcycle shop workers David Fisher, 17, and Garret Iversen, 26.
    Hyde is accused of robbing and then fatally shooting Fisher and Iversen at Rider Valley Motorcycles in Albuquerque about 10 hours after Lopez was found dead. Police say $50 was missing from the shop's cash register.
    Lt. Paul Feist said officers began noticing obvious characteristics from the bullets at all three crime scenes as early as Friday.
    "There were some similarities that really stood out,'' Feist said. "It's something you don't see everyday in bullets.''
    Police recovered the .45-caliber revolver near downtown Albuquerque where the officers were shot.
    Hyde has pleaded not guilty to four open counts of murder in the deaths of the officers and the motorcycle shop workers. He also has pleaded not guilty to one count of armed robbery.
    Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg has said her office might seek the death penalty.