Colorado law enforcement remember fallen Lakewood officer Nick Graham as kind, brave

As police officers rolled a flag-draped casket carrying Nicholas “Nick” Graham’s body to the front of an Englewood church with a serenade of bagpipes and drums, his young son Peyton, trailing the casket in the arms of his mom, pointed up to a giant photo of his dad projected on a screen. 

A spitting image of his dad, the 1-year-old was the center of his world, colleagues and family members of Graham said as they honored the fallen Lakewood police officer during a Thursday morning memorial service at the Brave Church. 

Graham, 33, was killed in a Nov. 5 shooting on a Regional Transportation District Bus in Lakewood. Thousands of people, mostly law enforcement officers, packed into Brave Church to honor Graham where, for nearly two and a half hours, they remembered him as a dedicated police officer and a man who was much more than his badge. 

Law enforcement officials from across Colorado — as far as Park and Montrose counties — and from across the country attended the commemoration. So did family members in law enforcement from Germany.

Before the service began, a procession of police vehicles stretched down East Hampden Avenue toward the church, lights blaring, while a group of law enforcement on horseback waited outside the church.

Family members and colleagues who spoke called Graham a devoted father, a loving husband and someone who never backed away from danger. 

“He was the epitome of the kind of person you hope is out there protecting your community, someone who takes responsibility seriously, someone who is willing to put others before himself and someone who runs towards danger when everyone else is running away,” his widow, Kassidy Graham, said during the service. “Nick made the ultimate sacrifice doing exactly what he believed in.”

This is a developing story that will be updated.