Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. – Acts 20:28
COLORADO SPRINGS – Colorado police officer and pastor Garrett Swasey described himself years ago as a sheepdog.
Kurt Aichele, another elder at Hope Chapel and one of Swasey’s closest friends for a decade, recalled an elders' meeting more than five years ago where the team was discussing roles in the church, such as “shepherds” versus “sheepdogs.”
It was around the same time that Swasey was contemplating a career switch into law enforcement.
“He described himself as a sheepdog, protecting the flock and reining them back in,” Aichele said of Swasey’s church leadership mentality. “He loved protecting other people, whether believers or not.”
On November 27, Swasey, 44, was one of three killed in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs, Colorado, Planned Parenthood clinic, after the University of Colorado cop responded to reports of a shooting. During the five-hour standoff with the gunman, nine other people were wounded, including five officers, according to The Denver Post.
A nationally-ranked figure-skater-turned-police officer, Swasey was also known in his community as a pastor at Hope Chapel, husband to Rachel Swasey and father to two young children, Faith, 6, and Elijah, who celebrated his 11th birthday two days after his father’s death.
“When it came to being an officer, were we surprised that he made that decision? Absolutely not.”
At Hope Chapel, a small evangelical congregation of 120, Swasey served as one of four elders. Although his main role was to oversee the smaller community groups that meet throughout the week, he also taught several Sundays during the year and frequently accompanied the worship team on the electric guitar.
Swasey started attending Hope Chapel in the early 2000’s after becoming a Christian through the influence of Josh McDowell’s book Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Aichele said.
The church originally started in 1994 as a Pentecostal Foursquare church plant, was unaffiliated in 1997, and re-launched in 2007 as a non-denominational fellowship. Swasey had stepped into leadership about a decade ago, becoming an elder under the latest restructuring of the church and began teaching in 2011. He entered his bi-vocational career as a law enforcement officer in 2009.
The Swaseys viewed “the members of the church as their family. Both have been granted a servant’s heart by God, and are a demonstrative evidence of God’s grace to Hope Chapel,” reads the bio on Hope Chapel’s website.
“Garrett was first and foremost a husband and pastor,” Aichele said. “The way he viewed his life–first his relationship with the Lord, then his relationship to serve, protect, and care for his wife, then to serve, protect, and care for his children, and then to serve, protect and care for his flock–and then his job.”
On the Friday that the shooting occurred, Swasey was at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs just like every other day. During the funeral a week later, Swasey’s coworker, police officer Larry Darnell, said that although Swasey was not asked to respond to the clinic, he went immediately after hearing on the police scanner that an officer had been shot, the Associated Press reported.
His funeral December 4 attracted more than 5,000 people, and the elders at Hope Chapel said churches across denominations have come together, and that the gospel has been preached to thousands in attendance at the prayer vigils, a University of Colorado memorial service, and the funeral, which was live-streamed on Fox News and on the host church’s website.
Despite his disagreement with abortion practices, another elder, Scott Dontanville, told The New York Times, Swasey was more concerned with saving lives.
Hearing of Swasey’s response did not surprise Aichele, who had seen Swasey rush, uncalled, to help many times before.
“Garrett was a man of absolute purpose–intentional with everything he did. And he was passionate,” Aichele said. “When it came to being an officer, were we surprised that he made that decision? Absolutely not.”
In the church, Aichele said, Swasey “described himself as the ‘utility guy’–wherever the hole, he would fill that hole. Everything about him cared about other people.”
According to Aichele, Garrett and Rachel Swasey “didn’t leave any unfinished business at home,” dealing in both the reality as a pastor’s family and one in law enforcement. He added that Swasey’s 17-year marriage to his wife, and her sacrificial contribution, was essential to his ministry. They opened their home often to disadvantaged members of the community.
“God created a man that was in fact willing to lay down his life for other people,” Aichele reflected. “Into the very last minute of his life, he was others-centered.”
Kara Bettis is a Boston-area reporter and a regular freelancer for Relevant Magazine, Christ and Pop Culture, and others.
