The cop who was killed while responding to a mass shooting at a grocery store in Colorado left his six-figure IT job to become a police officer.
51-year-old Eric Talley was working as an IT technician before he became a police officer with the Boulder Police Department, the Denver Post reported.
He only decided to become a cop after his friend tragically died in a DUI crash.
Jeremy Herko, a lieutenant with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado, said: “That kind of propelled him into law enforcement.”
Herko said that he and Talley would speak regularly, adding that the fallen cop sent him a message as the news of the mass shooting broke.
“I sent him a text asking him if he was OK, and of course he never texted back,” he told the newspaper. “That’s the life of a police officer.”
Herko told the Washington Post that Talley “absolutely loved his job and wanted to serve the community.
“It was remarkable to me that somebody would go to law enforcement from IT. He lost pay. He lost time away from his family.
“He joined the police academy without a guaranteed job.”
People paid tribute to the fallen cop by laying flowers on his police vehicle that was parked outside the Boulder Police Department.
Talley was among the ten people shot dead at the Colorado store when a gunman, identified as 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, opened fire.
“He didn’t want to put his family through something like this,” Talley0s father, Homer, said.
“He loved his kids and his family more than anything.”
Talley is survived by his wife and their seven children.
In an emotional statement, Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said: “He was a very kind man who didn’t have to go into policing. He had a profession before this. He had a higher calling.
“He’s everything policing needs and deserves. He was willing to die to protect others.”
She continued: “I feel numb. It’s heartbreaking to talk to victims, their families. It is tragic. This officer had seven children. I had his whole family in my office two weeks ago to give him an award.”
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