Harford County Sheriff’s Deputy First Class William H. Beebe Jr. was mourned as a “consummate professional” and a dedicated father Friday, three days after dying in the line of duty from a heart attack.
Hundreds of mourners and police officers from nearly every agency in the Baltimore region filled the St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Hickory for Beebe?s funeral Mass, which began and ended with the roar of a police motorcade andthe somber silence of the police honor guard bearing his casket.
Police officers wore black bands across their badges as a sign of mourning, reflecting that “the shine of the Sheriff?s Office star was a little less brilliant with the passing of DFC Bill Beebe,” Sheriff R. Thomas Golding said in his eulogy.
“Though his service with the Sheriff’s Office was short, his legacy as an outstanding law enforcement officer will live forever,” Golding said. Beebe, 28, had worked for the Sheriff?s Office for two years.
Just weeks before his death, Beebe received an award of merit for his work with Baltimore City and County police officers in several stolen-car cases and had been nominated for Deputy of the Year. He had made it his goal to become a detective and worked eagerly and tirelessly with that goal in mind, Golding said.
Beebe died of a heart attack Monday while responding to a police call, swerving his police cruiser off of Montrose Way near Abingdon and coming to rest 230 feet away in a ditch.
Other mourners, including the 9-year-old son of Beebe?s fiancee, wore blue ribbons on their lapels bearing his badge number. Beebe had just become a leader for the boy?s Cub Scout troop.
After eulogies by Golding and County Executive David Craig, Monsignor James Barker read aloud from a letter the boy wrote Beebe shortly after the accident.
“I worried about you ? I wanted you to know that you were a very good father to me. I miss you so much, and I love you so much,” he read.
Though the medical examiner said Beebe died of a heart attack from an aorta that was mostly blocked, his father described him as having “a heart so big it overflowed with goodness.”
