A somber silence filled the room crowded with law enforcement officers, community members, friends and family as Otis Redding’s “Cigarettes and Coffee” played live in the background during Monday’s memorial for Adam Buckner, the Tucson police officer who died in a crash on Easter Sunday.
“We love to call Adam an old soul,” said his wife, Catie Sanders, soon after the memorial service had started with the couple’s wedding song. “He changed my life in so many ways. He taught me that real love is patient, peaceful, kind and unconditional, and I will love him always.”
Buckner’s memory was honored Monday morning in a private memorial service at the Fox Theatre downtown, followed by a procession along South Stone Avenue, and concluded with an intimate reception at the Tucson Police Department headquarters.
“Officer Buckner was a son, brother, husband and a friend to many,” said Chief of Police Chad Kasmar addressing the crowd during the service. “A true law enforcement professional, exceptional in every sense of the word. Adam was a hero amongst heroes.”
The end of the procession was marked by Sanders tying a ribbon with Buckner’s name on it to a flag for fallen officers, symbolizing the immortalization of his name in Tucson’s law enforcement history.
Buckner, 31, crashed March 31 while answering a call near the University of Arizona campus. He died later that night in a nearby hospital.
“In his final moments, Adam was doing what we all respected him for so much, (which was) running towards danger, where lesser men would have fled from it,” said Alexander Reiter, a New Orleans police detective.
Buckner joined TPD in November 2021 after beginning his law enforcement career with the New Orleans Police Department in 2017.
“He was uniquely comfortable in his own skin, he beat to his own drum,” said Kasmar as he addressed the crowd present at the service. “Adam was known for his relentless desire to learn on his craft and his passion to teach new police officers. He had a gas tank of energy that never seemed to go empty.”
After the service, a procession filled with law enforcement officers organized in marching lines led mourners from Fox Theatre to police headquarters. There, the fallen officer’s urn was placed at the center of the ceremony where officers held an assortment of law enforcement flags at one end and the American flag was hoisted high on the other end.
Sanders, speaking at the Fox, reassured Buckner’s loved ones that this wouldn’t be the last time they saw him.
“I will see him in the flowers that grow on the side of the road, I will hear him in the songs (of) birds outside my window, I will feel him in the summer breeze,” Sanders said.
“I’ll smell him in the exhaust of a diesel engine of a Mercedes,” Sanders continued, inciting laughter from the crowd.
“You will see him in everything that is beautiful, everything that is kind and everything that is good.”
