Flowers, silence honor fallen officer

In a solemn preview of tomorrow's funeral for Seattle police Officer Jack Lone, 35 rowers spread flowers on the Lake Washington Ship Canal at dusk yesterday at the site of Lone's accidental death.

Leading the procession was a boat with five Seattle police officers who are part of the Lake Washington Rowing Club, which organized the memorial event.

"It was beyond moving. I felt his spirit was there in the water and we had a moment of silence," Officer Debra Pelich said afterward. "When the water sparkles, that's Jack's spirit."

Pelich will be back on the water tomorrow when up to 5,000 law-enforcement officers from throughout the region are expected to participate in a funeral that will include a parade of police and Coast Guard boats on Lake Union.

Yesterday's event drew a small crowd of onlookers near the tugboat Michael, a hulk on the canal between Fremont and Ballard that rowers use as a landmark.

Last Wednesday, the Michael came loose. Lone, 39, and another Harbor Patrol officer were coaxing it back to the shore; he was on the rocky, bramble-covered shoreline and apparently fell into the water and drowned.

The incident is still being investigated, but Lone had removed his flotation vest and doctors told his family he had a large bruise on his head.

Lone, a strapping, charismatic, veteran police officer, husband and father of an 18-month-old boy, was the first fatality in the Seattle Harbor Patrol's century-long history.

Not everyone on the canal last night was grieving. As the rowers headed toward the Michael, they were passed by the gaily lighted Fremont Avenue, a 50-foot tour boat that was celebrating the life of another heroic public servant.

The party was for Chris Edwards, the boat's first deckhand, who just returned from a year of duty in Iraq.

Edwards, 31, of Shoreline, served as a scout with a National Guard unit that was policing the Mosul airport and supply-convoy routes. For the past year, Edwards would patrol the streets, raid the homes of insurgents and bide his time on a base that was routinely attacked with mortars about eight times a day.

"We just drove around and hopefully you didn't hit a roadside bomb," he said. "Sometimes it felt like you were driving around waiting to get hit by an IED [improvised explosive device]."

Fellow soldiers were killed and wounded, but often casualties were from accidents rather than hostilities.

Lone, too, was exposed to many risks. Earlier in his career, he was an undercover narcotics detective and served on the FBI's violent-crimes task force.

Edwards didn't know Lone, but he appreciated how fate may strike at the most unlikely times, "when it's just everyday things," he said.

"When you're in a high-threat environment," he said, "your guard's up more."

Brier Dudley: 206-515-5687