by Cori Hilsgen
news@thenewsleaders.com
People gathered at the city-hall parking lot in Cold Spring for a one-year anniversary vigil remembering police officer Tom Decker, 31, who was shot in the line of duty Nov. 29, 2012.
The vigil was organized by city staff at the request of Decker’s widow, Alicia. She spoke during the vigil.
Decker, a Cold Spring-Richmond police officer, was responding to a report of a possible suicidal man that family members were concerned about when he was shot. The man lived above Winner’s Sports Bar and Grill in Cold Spring.
During the past year, a part of Minnesota Highway 23 was renamed the Officer Tom Decker Memorial Highway. Decker’s name has also been added to the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial.
So far, nobody has been charged with the crime, but one man was arrested and released; and another man who was a suspect committed suicide after authorities tried for a couple of hours to convince him to turn himself in.
Anyone with information about the shooting can call the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office at 877-782-5683 or the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at 877-996-6222.