TREMONTON, Utah — One year after two Tremonton Garland police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty, their community is honoring their memory — and those closest to them are still navigating the grief.
Sgt. Lee Sorensen and Officer Eric Estrada were answering a 9-1-1 hang-up call for domestic violence when both were shot and killed on scene.
Lanette Sorensen, Lee's widow, spoke about who her husband was and the life they shared.
"Lee loved his job. He loved his crew, and all he wanted to do was serve his community and, you know, make sure that. And he wanted to do it in this town where he grew up in," Lanette said.
Lee was described as larger than life — someone who helped with the Box Elder County Fair Dog Show, weeded the garden, and ran the Boise Spartan Race. This year, his children Lacey and Landon ran the race without him.
"Lacey ran that race with her dad, and so last week they ran that race in honor of her dad," Lanette said.
Lanette, a first responder herself, was working from home the night of the shooting when she saw the notes on the 9-1-1 call.
"And so I got up and I started pacing the floor. And I was like, 'I don't know how to do this, you know, what am I gonna do?' Because I knew then," Lanette said.
She then went to tell her children.
"And so I went up and I told the kids, I said, 'Something's happened with your dad at work and it's bad.' I said, 'We're gonna go in and we'll go in and activate the EOC. We're gonna go into Garland, get ready,'" Lanette said.
In the year since, Lanette said the experience has been a relentless emotional roller coaster. She said the couple had never discussed what to do if something happened to Lee at work — a reality she now shares as a lesson for others.
"It was not something that we had discussed, and so one of the lessons and any opportunity that I get is to talk about all the things that I wish we'd talked about, all the documents that I wish we'd filled out and all the planning that I wish that we had done, and I just hope that. You know, when we get to that day, he says that I did a good job because I had to make all those choices on my own," Lanette said.
Lanette said she is grateful for the outpouring of love and support from the community, calling it truly gratifying. But she said nothing fills the empty space where Lee was.
Tremonton Garland Police Chief Dustin Cordova said the anniversary has been deeply difficult for his department.
"I would say the biggest challenge is just getting through it mentally and emotionally. You know, we lost two of our friends, two people that are irreplaceable, and navigating the emotional roller coaster and honestly, even just the anniversary date is absolutely heartbreaking for most of our officers. And I've been checking in on my people, and the, the emotions are everything you would, you would guess, you know, everything from sadness to anger. But there's a strange one, and that is appreciation," Cordova said.
"You know, the amount of community support we had and love we've gotten from our community has really helped sustain us through this event, and we're really grateful for that," Cordova said.
That community support was on display at a blood drive held in honor of Sorensen and Estrada at the Garland Fire Department on Friday. People lined up to give blood, wanting to honor the 2 men who paid the ultimate price to keep their community safe.
A Cache County community is also channeling past tragedies into action for wildland firefighters. 3 local businesses teamed up to donate 1,500 meals to the Logan City Fire Department. Jill Romo helped organize the effort, saying the donation honors Estrada and Sorensen. Romo also wanted to give back after losing her own business to a fire.
Andy Shock, EMS assistant chief for Logan City Fire Department, said the meals are critical when crews first deploy to a wildfire.
"They're out burning a ton of calories that 1st 24 hours or 36 hours before some infrastructure is in place to get them food and calories. so hopefully it'll be super helpful. the biggest benefit to us honestly is seeing the support from our community," Shock said.
The meals come with silverware and napkins. Logan City Fire plans to distribute the bags to crews across Utah and may also send some to firefighters in Washington and Oregon.
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