KITTITAS COUNTY, Wash. -- March 19th marks the one year anniversary of the passing of Kittitas County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Thompson, after being killed in the line of duty.
On Thursday, the Kittitas County Sheriff's Department remembered the fallen deputy saying:
"One year ago today, Deputy Ryan Thompson was killed in the line of duty. Not a day has gone by when his presence has not been missed.
March 19th will always be remembered as the day that Deputy Ryan Thompson left us while heroically protecting the lives of others.
We encourage all who knew Ryan to remember the way that he lived.
He was the Deputy you would want to respond to a call for service that involved one of your family members.
Deputy Ryan Thompson was kind, smart, able to connect and converse with anyone, and deeply driven to fight crime. Deputy Ryan Thompson truly cared for the community of Kittitas County.
To know him was to love him.
Like all of us he did have one fault, and that was his inability to be on time. We have since realized that this stemmed from his drive to be a connoisseur of life. Deputy Ryan Thompson truly did stop to smell the flowers, every time and everywhere he went.
Your Sheriff’s Office family misses you Ryan. We are in a better place because you worked here."
Officer Benito Chavez, of the Kittitas Police Department, was also shot during the incident.
Officer Chavez recovered and returned to work in July of 2019, following the shooting.
Deputy Thompson had 14-years of law enforcement service in the Kittitas area.