KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety is continuing to remember their first fallen officer, nine years later.
Officer Eric Zapata was 35-years-old and a 10-year veteran of the department when he was fatally shot on April 18th, 2011 while responding to an officer-involved shooting in the 1400 block of Hayes Park Avenue.
He was less than an hour from completing his shift that night and the first Kalamazoo Public Safety officer to be killed in the line of duty.
The shooter, identified as 31-year-old Leonard Statler, shot and killed the officer and then turned the gun on himself.
Now the community continues to remember the officer’s commitment to Kalamazoo. In 2013, a stretch of I-94 was named in memory of Officer Zapata and a bronze memorial statue now sits along the Kalamazoo Mall.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the stay at home order, the Public Safety Department held an online memorial service on their Facebook page in memory of the fallen officer on Saturday afternoon.
It can be viewed on KDPS’ Facebook page here.
