Las Vegas police Tuesday carry the casket of Sgt. Henry Prendes out of Central Christian Church following a memorial service for the officer, who was killed in a Feb. 1 shootout after responding to a domestic disturbance call. Photo by Clint Karlsen.
Las Vegas motorcycle officers participate in the procession Tuesday for slain police officer Sgt. Henry Prendes. Photo by John Locher.
Henry Prendes The Las Vegas police officer, 37, was a 14-year veteran
Brittany Reid, a criminal justice student at UNLV, cries Tuesday as the procession carrying the body of Sgt. Henry Prendes passes beneath her on Interstate 215. Photo by John Locher.
Las Vegas police motorcycle officers ride in the procession to Central Christian Church before the memorial service Tuesday for slain Las Vegas police Sgt. Henry Prendes. Photo by Clint Karlsen.
Dawn Prendes, center, widow of slain Las Vegas police Sgt. Henry Prendes, hugs Henry Prendes' daughter, Kylee, as his other daughter, Brooke, watches after a Tuesday memorial service for the police officer at Central Christian Church. The service drew thousands of police officers from across Nevada and several other states. Photo by Clint Karlsen.
The turnout for Tuesday's memorial services for slain Las Vegas police Sgt. Henry Prendes overwhelmed one of the valley's largest churches, forced authorities to close stretches of two of the valley's busiest roadways and tied up traffic for hours in some parts of the city.
Thousands of fellow police officers, friends and strangers from as close as next door and far as Lehi, Utah, gathered to remember and celebrate the officer, who was killed in a shootout last week.
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"It's the biggest brotherhood there is," Utah patrolman David Boss said of the law enforcement community. Boss drove from Lehi with his partner to attend the service for Prendes, though he had never met the man.
"He was our brother," Boss said.
Melanie Kidwell, who lives next door to Palm Memorial Park, where Prendes was to be laid to rest, put her two children in a stroller and rolled them to the cemetery to await Prendes' arrival with thousands of others after services at Henderson's Central Christian Church. She, too, never met him.
"I felt like I knew him after I watched that funeral on TV," she said. "What an amazing man. It's a huge loss. Just unspeakable. I get choked up talking about it."
Prendes, 37, was gunned down Feb. 1 while responding to a domestic disturbance call in the southwest valley. Police shot and killed the gunman, 21-year-old Amir Crump.
During Tuesday's service for Prendes, friends, family and co-workers described the charismatic officer as a funny, faithful man who carried a Bible in his patrol car, cheered for the Dallas Cowboys, loved his family and job and strived to live life to the fullest.
"His life was all about love," Prendes' childhood friend Danny Garcia said, "love for his family, love for his friends and love for his community. This building couldn't hold all the people whose lives Henry touched. Imagine that."
The extraordinary community response to Prendes' death was evident as the Henderson church's 3,400 auditorium seats filled with mourners 40 minutes before the service was scheduled to start.
A procession led by motorcycle officers and a police pickup carrying Prendes' flag-draped casket started about 10 a.m. at Palm Mortuary downtown. The procession was late arriving at the church because of its size, which police said was much larger than expected. Law enforcement personnel from across Nevada and several other states joined in the procession.
As the line of vehicles neared the church, officers marching on foot flanked the truck carrying Prendes' casket. Family members followed. A bagpiper and drummer brought up the rear.
Hundreds of people heading to the service were delayed by the procession and arrived too late to get a seat inside the church. They were accommodated in an extra room, where they watched the service by video feed on a large screen. Still hundreds more filled the church's lobby or stood outside the building watching on televisions.
The service, which was slated to start at 11 a.m., started about a half hour later and lasted nearly two hours.
Prendes' wife, Dawn Prendes, remained composed and fidgeted with her wedding ring as she spoke about her husband.
"I want to thank the entire community for your prayers," she said. "It is with your prayers and through the grace of God that gives us the strength to be up here today."
Dawn Prendes, who married Henry Prendes in 2004, emphasized the celebratory theme of the memorial service. "Every loss of a loved one in Christ is a celebration," she said. "(Henry) is more alive now than he ever was, if that is even possible."
Prendes' daughter, Kylee, 13, talked about how her dad always made her smile. She read a poem she composed about how her father had always been her hero. "Now he is (a hero) to you, too," she said.
Prendes' older daughter, Brooke, remarked on how "amazing" the turnout for the service was.
"My dad's probably looking down right now, saying, 'Yep, this is all for me,'" she said. "I'm so proud of my father, how he affected so many people's lives. In everything I do, I'm going to honor my father."
Sheriff Bill Young called Prendes, a native Las Vegan, a "Las Vegas kid."
"He was a product of this community and what we stand for," said Young, whose voice cracked with emotion at one point during his remarks. "All he ever wanted to be was a police officer. Henry was a good cop his very first day out of the academy, and he just kept getting better. To Sgt. Prendes, to protect and serve was not just some phrase on the side of a police car, it was a way of life."
Prendes joined the Metropolitan Police Department 14 years ago as one of a few Spanish-speaking officers. He was promoted to sergeant and took a post supervising sex crime detectives.
One of Prendes' friends compiled a video tribute to him for the church service.
It showed high school pictures of Prendes, who was the captain of his Las Vegas High School football team. It also showed Prendes enjoying some of his favorite activities: hunting and playing golf. The tribute also featured video of him being sworn in as a police officer.
"All he talked about was being a cop," Prendes' long-time friend Dennis Claycomb said. Claycomb said he had known Prendes since junior high and had graduated from Las Vegas High School with him in 1987.
"Everything that's been said about him is true and more," Claycomb said. "He was the greatest dad, the greatest person. If you could do it right, he did it right."
After the service, another large procession escorted Prendes' body from the church to Palm Memorial Park at 7600 S. Eastern Avenue.
The procession "was three times as big as we thought it would be," said trooper Kevin Honea of the Nevada Highway Patrol. "We had people at the cemetery before some people got out of the church."
That distance is roughly 12 miles, traveling along U.S. Highway 95, the Las Vegas Beltway and Eastern Avenue.
A count of how many vehicles were in the procession was not available, but Honea said some were estimating that as many as 2,000 cars and trucks participated.
Because of the massive procession, southbound U.S. 95 between Russell Road and the Beltway and the westbound Beltway between U.S. 95 in Henderson and Eastern were shut down for as long as a half hour, causing traffic disruptions on those heavily used highways Tuesday afternoon, Honea said.
Las Vegas police spokesman Bill Cassell estimated that about 3,000 of Tuesday's memorial attendees were officers from police agencies across the state. He said the majority of Las Vegas police were off-duty at the time.
"The number of individuals who really wanted to go and couldn't is small because the department worked it out," he said. "If somebody wanted to trade a shift or something like that, I'm sure the supervisors allowed that to happen."
As the miles-long procession traveled from the church to the cemetery, mourners gathered around the park's Garden of Reflection to await the arrival of Prendes' casket.
"This is a stark reminder of why police officers exist in the first place," Las Vegas Sgt. Rory Tuggle said as he waited. Tuggle, who has been with the department for 26 years, said he met Prendes when the younger officer was just a rookie.
"He was a great guy, and losing him is unacceptable," Tuggle said. "There are 1,700 other Sgt. Prendeses on this police force. This occupation absorbs risks so others don't have to."
The procession arrived about 2:30 p.m. at Palm Memorial Park.
Central Christian's Senior Pastor Jud Wilhite said a brief prayer, and Young presented Dawn Prendes with the flag that had covered her husband's casket.
Seven officers each fired three rifle shots, and five police helicopters flew overhead. Officers then filed past Prendes' casket, each pausing to salute.
During a short graveside service, Wilhite said Prendes had died a hero.
"More importantly, he lived as a hero," he said. "We can honor him by living our lives to the fullest."
Review-Journal writers Frank Curreri and Omar Sofradzija contributed to this report.
