The widow of a provincial police officer who died after being shot on a rural
southwestern Ontario road says she has had visions and nightmares of being at
his funeral.
Heather Pham spoke to the thousands
of police officers from Canada and the United States gathered in Wingham to
honour her husband, Const. Vu Pham, Friday.
She described her husband, who died
on Monday, as "brave and amazing" and the most hands-on dad to their three sons
she has ever seen, taking them hunting, fishing or playing hockey.
Pham said forgiveness is the only way
to release them from the pain and the anger and she would offer it to the best
of her human ability.
Fred Preston, who was charged with
first-degree murder in Vu Pham's death, died in a London hospital Thursday.
Ontario Provincial Police
Commissioner Julian Fantino called Pham "a modern day hero" who courageously put
himself in harm's way to honour his oath of duty.
Pham was shot after pulling over a
pickup truck on a rural road northwest of London, Ont., and died several hours
later in hospital.
Fantino told Vu's widow, their three
sons and the other mourners that he didn't know Pham personally.
But he said Const. Pham was an
"excellent officer and a very good man who deeply loved his chosen profession,
accepted the risks and in the end, made the ultimate sacrifice."
Premier Dalton McGuinty says Vu was
respected by his colleagues and a "pillar of a close-knit community."
"Provincial Const. Vu Pham you can
stand down, you have done your duty, you have made us all proud. And although we
move on we will not forget you. Rest in peace," said Fantino.
In the funeral program, Pham's wife
said her husband was the love of her life.
Heather wrote in the statement that
when her husband left for work on Monday morning and said goodbye little did she
know that would be their final goodbye. Pham is father to sons Tyler, 12,
Jordan, 10, and Joshua, 7.
"Words alone can't express the
whirlwind the past few days have been for me, my sons and our immediate family,"
Heather Pham wrote in the funeral program.
"I know and feel in my heart that Vu
is watching over all of us and will be with us until we meet again in heaven."
The strong support of police gathered
at the funeral "will help us to heal over the hours, days and months ahead that
we have to endure," she added.
Preston, a former reeve of Joly
township in northern Ontario, had been in critical condition in hospital since
Monday. But on Thursday night the 70 year old was taken off life-support, said a
family member who did not want to be identified.
The province's Special Investigations
Unit confirmed the death.
Pham, originally from Vietnam, was
taken in as a boy by Dan Thompson, a southwestern Ontario pastor who later moved
to northern Ontario, where Pham and his three new siblings were raised.
Pham was the force's 104th officer
killed in the line of duty since its inception 100 years ago.