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Hundreds honor fallen officer
Motorcycle police officers lead the funeral procession for Plano officer Wes Hardy through Lewisville to Boyd for the burial service.
Matt Nachtrieb / Staff Photo
By Josh Hixson, Staff Writer
Watch VideoA community and a family said a tearful goodbye Wednesday to Dayle “Wes” Weston Hardy, a 31-year-old Plano Police Motorcycle Officer who died tragically in the line of duty July 7.
Hundreds of peace officers and fire fighters from across Texas came to Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano to pay their respects and show support for the Hardy family and the Plano Police Department.
In a special tribute to Officer Hardy’s service as a “motor”, a multitude of motorcycle officers, from departments as far away as Austin, arrived to lead the processional from Plano to Hardy’s internment in Boyd Cemetery, located in Boyd, Texas.
Officer Charles Hoff, a motorcycle officer with the Rowlett Police Department, said the larger than usual attendance was a way for them to honor Hardy.
It was an action that spoke volumes without a word.
“We want to come out and show this family that we support them,” Hoff said. “When one of us goes down, it hits close to home.”
Motor cycle officers share a special bond that goes deeper than friendship because of the added danger inherent in their job, according to Officer Steve Akin, a motor cycle officer with the Murphy Police Department.
“I could walk up to another motor officer, and we would talk like brothers,” Akin said. “(Losing a motorcycle officer) is more like losing a part of your family.”
Akin — who was a friend of Hardy’s — said Hardy’s death was especially hard for him because of a similar on-duty collision of his own.
“It’s sad. It breaks your heart,” Akin said. “He’s got two twin daughters. I’ve got a daughter his daughters’ age. I got lucky.”
The motorcade — more than a mile long — headed to Boyd, where friends and family remembered Hardy as a kind-hearted, generous man, “who never met a stranger.”
“We lost the kind of person we don't ever want to lose: a nice, clean, polite, stand up citizen; good to his family, good to his friends,” said Boyd Police Chief Harry Lamance. “He had what it took to be a good cop.”
Lamance coached Hardy in little league baseball and worked with him at the Wise County Sheriff Department.
Lamance said Hardy was the kind of person who never forgot his roots and would have wanted to call the Boyd Cemetery — which overlooks an endless pasture — his final resting place.
Brandi Lambert, a Boyd native and a friend of Hardy’s since the first grade, said he always had a love for agriculture. Hardy attended Texas A&M University on an FFA scholarship.
“I always thought he was going to be an agriculture teacher,” Lambert said. “He always had a new steer to show you if you went to his house.”
Not only did Hardy serve in the Plano Police Department, but he also volunteered his time as a captain with the Howe Volunteer Fire Department.
For Garry Cate, Hardy’s uncle-in-law, an attitude of service before self is exactly what Hardy was all about.
“His commitment was in every arena of his life,” Cate said. “He was a committed individual that loved his job, loved his family and loved his God.”
In a final salute to a fallen hero, the Plano Police Department played a tape recording of Hardy checking out of service.
In the words of a dispatcher: “Badge number 1503 is out of service…Godspeed, Wes.”
Contact Josh Hixson at jhixson@acnpapers.com
Grab a copy of the Friday Plano Star Courier for a complete memorial package.
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