Police honor fallen comrades
"He (James Moulson) didn’t work here very
long. But what I remember is his strong desire to be a police officer. It
is really sad that someone who wanted so much to be a police officer had
to have something like this happen to him."
Cal Nevland, Ketchum Police Chief
By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer
Police departments from throughout the Wood
River Valley sent representatives to memorial services Tuesday in Twin
Falls for two Jerome County Sheriff’s deputies slain in the line of
duty.
The service was organized by Blaine County
Sheriff Walt Femling, who is past president of the Idaho Sheriffs
Association.
Cpl. James Moulson, 30, and Cpl. Phillip
Anderson, 23, were killed Jan. 3 in a gun battle after officers tried to
serve a warrant to search a house in Eden for drugs.
The suspect also died in the shootout. No
one else was wounded.
Moulson, who was a four-year veteran of the
department, had a wife, Amy, and a 9-month-old son, Derek.
Anderson was single and had been a deputy
for two years.
Ketchum Police Chief Cal Nevland said
Moulson had worked for the Ketchum Police Department for a short time in
1997.
"He didn’t work here very
long," Nevland said. "But what I remember is his strong desire
to be a police officer. It is really sad that someone who wanted so much
to be a police officer had to have something like this happen to
him."
Blaine County chief deputy sheriff Gene
Ramsey said he also knew Moulson as well as Anderson.
Ramsey said the two officers "were
serving their community with dignity and honor" at the time of their
deaths.
Nevland noted that there is a federal
program under which the family of a police officer killed in the line of
duty gets $100,000. He said his home state of North Dakota matches the
federal money, but Idaho does not.
"I’m going to talk with Wendy [Jaquet]
about our Legislature looking at having a similar program."
He said it was something he thought the
state of Idaho could afford.
The Associated Press reported Moulson and
Anderson were killed by gunfire while attempting to serve George Timothy
Williams, 47, with a warrant to search his home for drugs.
The shootout occurred about 7:30 p.m. on
Jan. 3. Eden is about 10 miles east of Twin Falls.
A search of the suspect’s home turned up
only a small amount of marijuana.
The memorial for Moulson and Anderson was
held at the College of Southern Idaho gymnasium Tuesday afternoon.
The deaths of the deputies brought to 55
the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in
Idaho.
It was the first killing of on-duty law
enforcement officers in Idaho since Idaho State Police trooper Linda Huff,
33, died on June 17, 1998, in a shootout in her agency's Coeur d'Alene
parking lot.
In a statement, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne called
the shooting a tragedy "that reminds us once again how the men and
women who serve in law enforcement put their lives on the line on behalf
of all of us every day to maintain law and order."
