By Judi Villa and Emily Bittner, The Arizona Republic
Phoenix police Officer Ben Baltzer choked back his emotions as he spoke of his lifelong friend.
Baltzer and Officer Jason Wolfe met in third grade and nurtured a friendship through two decades.
And after Wolfe gave up a higher paying job 4? years ago to become a police officer, the two eventually ended up on the same squad in the same police precinct.
“I looked up to him,” Baltzer told mourners at Wolfe’s funeral Friday morning.
“Godspeed, Jason.”
Wolfe, 27, was killed with Officer Eric White, 30, in a gunbattle last Saturday night with a suicidal suspect. White’s funeral services will be today.
At a service packed with about 2,000 mourners at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Phoenix, friends and fellow police officers remembered Wolfe as a dedicated cop with an easy smile, a hearty laugh and a 3?-year-old son who looked just like him.
Officer Patty Fimbres told mourners it was difficult to refer to Wolfe in the past tense.
“It just doesn’t seem real to me,” Fimbres said. “When am I going to wake up from this bad dream?”
She fondly recalled Wolfe’s rendition of a country song and how he teased squad mates and brightened up daily briefings.
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She also spoke of calling Wolfe’s cellphone after his death, to hear his voice “one last time.”
“I will take comfort knowing you will always be watching out for us,” Fimbres said.
Wolfe and White were killed after they kicked in the door of shooting suspect Douglas M. Tatar. White was shot first and Wolfe died when he stepped into the line of fire to pull White to safety. A third officer, Chris Parese, was wounded before Tatar committed suicide.
Fimbres called Wolfe “the bravest hero I’ve ever known.”
“He walked the plank for this community, and he gave it all to help those he didn’t even know,” said John South, a Phoenix police chaplain.
Said Mayor Phil Gordon: “I’ll never forget you, sir. You will always be in my heart. You will always hold a place of honor in my life.”
Outside, a handful of mourners, including children too young to understand what was going on, stood on a sidewalk across from the church, watching as officers from around the state filed in and out.
“You feel for the family and you feel for the police department,” said Jesse Zamora, 55, who lives near the church. “The bottom line is one (death) is too many.”
After the service, about 300 police motorcycles led the miles-long procession to Phoenix Memorial Park and Mortuary. Hundreds of mourners lined the procession route, holding hands over their hearts and waving American flags.
One driver stopped in the oncoming traffic lane to salute the procession. A family with small children held signs thanking Officers Wolfe and White and saying they were praying for them. Schoolchildren in plaid uniforms lined Seventh Street near Dunlap.
At the interment, helicopters flew overhead in a V-formation. Two fire engines braced their ladders together to make an inverted V over the entrance to the cemetery. Officers gave Wolfe a 21-gun salute.
Over the police radio, a dispatcher read Wolfe’s serial number and said he had arrived at the cemetery and would be out of service.
“Good night, sir,” the dispatcher said. “You will be deeply missed.
“Rest in peace.”