BANGOR, Maine — An estimated 1,000 people turned out for Deputy Luke Gross’ funeral today in Bangor.
Gross died in the line of duty last Thursday while responding to a report of a car crash.
Gov. Janet Mills attended the event, which began just before noon at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, as did at least a few hundred uniformed police officers from Maine and outside the state, according to Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety. State troopers from other New England states presented their state’s respective flag, and at least one deputy from each of Maine’s 16 counties presented their county flags, she said.
Gross’ procession arrived from Bucksport at around 11:10 and was welcomed by more than a hundred officers from across Maine in a ceremony that was led by Hancock County Sheriff’s department cruisers. A bagpipe and drum band played solemnly shortly before Gross’ casket was transported inside the Cross Insurance Center 15 minutes later.
Gary and Debbie Sargent of Surry were among many people who showed up at the venue around 10 a.m. The couple knew Gross, a Bucksport native, from when he was a boy and wanted to arrive early.
Gary Sargent, a retired state game warden, said Gross used to show cattle at the Blue Hill Fair when he was a teenager, as Sargent had done when he was younger.
“This one hit me harder than others, and I don’t know why,” Sargent said, adding that he’s known other law enforcement officers who have passed away unexpectedly. He didn’t cross paths with Gross professionally, he said, but saw him on occasion in Bucksport.
“I never saw him get worked up about anything. He was a very, very kind-hearted man,” Sargent said. “It’s hard.”
Clockwise from left: Law enforcement officers and friends of Deputy Luke Gross make their way to the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine for funeral services that begin at noon; State Police Troopers walk out of the Cross Insurance Center where fallen Hancock County Deputy Luke Gross’ funeral is being held, Sept. 30, 2021. Credit: Sawyer Loftus and Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
Gross, 44, of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department had responded to a single-vehicle crash on Route 3 in Trenton in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 23 and was cleaning up debris left behind in the roadway when he was struck from behind by a pickup truck.
Gross was wearing a reflective vest and had turned on the emergency lights on his cruiser when he parked in the breakdown lane, but died after being hit from behind as he was bending over to pick up something out of the northbound travel lane. The pickup truck driver, 55-year-old Timothy Badger of Levant, is not expected to face charges, Maine State Police have said.
The driver of the vehicle that had crashed but then left prior to Gross’ arrival, 20-year-old Thorin Smith of Bar Harbor, has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident, illegal use of drug paraphernalia and illegal possession of alcohol by a minor.
The retired game warden said that maybe something good can come out of Gross’ death, in terms of raising awareness about driving safely past crash scenes.
“I suspect there will be talk about having officers wearing more high-visibility clothing,” Sargent said. He was quick to say that Gross’ death was a tragedy but that no one was to blame.
“If it’s a [car] accident, you’re not going to leave something in the road for someone else to run over,” he said. “Every police officer, trooper and deputy has done the same thing hundreds of times.”
Early Thursday, officers who will be part of the color guard rehearsed walking into the hall, up on the stage and then back again, in preparation for the ceremony. Outside, members of the Bangor Fire Department raised a flag suspended from the ladder of a truck to honor Gross.
Officers from the border patrol, marine patrol, rangers from Acadia National Park and wardens from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife joined police officers from around the state to honor Gross.
The turnout is expected to be less than usually seen at funerals for fallen officers. If not for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there likely would be 3,000 people or more on hand Thursday to pay their respects to the fallen deputy, Moss said.
Before the funeral, there will be a procession to Bangor from the Mitchell-Tweedie Funeral Home in Bucksport, where Gross grew up. Approximately 20 motorcycle units will be in the procession, 12 of them from police departments throughout Maine, Moss said.
Jamie Trader, a clerk in Hancock County’s register of deeds office, described Gross as “a great guy” and said her husband and their children had taken karate lessons with Gross and his children in Ellsworth. Her children would come home from the lessons and say that they beat Gross while sparring during practice, she said.
“He was always so great with them,” she said.
Gross’ funeral is the fourth held in Maine in the past decade for a law enforcement officer who died in the line of duty.
In June 2017, Officer Nathan M. Desjardins of the Fryeburg Police Department died from injuries he suffered in a boat crash while responding to a call to search for a missing canoeist. Hundreds of law enforcement and emergency services personnel wearing their dress uniforms attended Desjardins’ funeral later that month at Augusta Civic Center.
Clockwise from left: The casket of fallen Deputy Luke Gross is taken into the Cross Insurance Center Arena on Thursday; Pastor Peter Remick speaks at the funeral. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
Less than a year later, Cpl. Eugene Cole of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department was shot and killed by John D. Williams in Norridgewock as he tried to arrest Williams on a drug charge. An estimated 3,600 people, most of them law enforcement officials from Maine and outside the state, attended Cole’s funeral nearly two weeks later at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
In April 2019, Detective Ben Campbell of Maine State Police was killed on the side of I-95 in Hampden when he was struck by a tire that came off a passing logging truck after he stopped to help a motorist whose car slid off the road. Approximately 3,000 people attended Campbell’s funeral the following week at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
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