The Maricopa County Sheriff Office’s Memorial Fund is donating $25,000 to the family of Flagstaff Police Officer Tyler Jacob Stewart, who was killed in the line of duty on December 27, 2014. Officer Stewart’s family received the check Wednesday, January 14, at 2:30 pm, from Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Memorial Fund at the Sheriff’s headquarters.
Officer Stewart was following up on a domestic violence investigation when he went to a home of Robert Smith and his girlfriend in Flagstaff. While speaking to Smith outside the house, Smith pulled out a handgun and shot Stewart several times, including in the face. Smith then walked away and shot and killed himself.
Neighbors who witnessed the event called 911, which dispatched paramedics. Stewart was taken to Flagstaff Medical Center, where he died. Stewart was twenty-four-years-old, and had been with the police department less than one year. He had graduated from Boulder Creek High School in Anthem in 2008, and Concordia College in California.
Stewart’s father is a sergeant with the Department of Public Safety, his uncle works for the Phoenix Police Department, and his grandfather is a lieutenant colonel in the Department of Public Safety.
“For the second time in two weeks,” says Sheriff Arpaio, “our Memorial Fund has the sad but proud duty of assisting the family of a fallen officer during its most terrible time. 121 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in the United States in 2014. The recent horrific events in Paris which took the lives of 3 French police officers highlight that the danger to law enforcement is both universal and can strike anytime, anywhere.”
In the past two years, the Sheriff’s Office Memorial Fund, a nonprofit organization, has given $404,000 to 16 families of injured and fallen police officers and sheriff’s deputies throughout Arizona, making the Fund one of the largest benefactors of law enforcement in the state. In addition, the Sheriff’s Office Memorial Fund is notable in that, unlike other law enforcement charity funds of a similar nature, no administrative costs are used to run the fund. All monies go directly to the families of injured or fallen officers and deputies.
“Once again, the members of the Sheriff’s Office Advisory Posse who manage the Memorial Fund have stepped up and demonstrated the vital role they play in the law enforcement community,” Sheriff Arpaio says. “Their work combined with the financial contributions of so many people and companies have made the Memorial Fund a tower of hope and support.”