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DRAPER — Five years after a Draper police officer was killed in the line of duty, his wife is working to keep his legacy alive.
Sergeant Derek Johnson was killed on September 1, 2013. As he was wrapping up his graveyard shift, he stopped to check on a car on the side of the road. As he stopped, he was shot and killed through the passenger window of his vehicle. Timothy Troy Walker pleaded guilty to his murder in 2014.
Five years later, Johnson’s widow Shante is gathering with friends and family to remember her husband.
“They’re always telling me stories about Derek and what they remember of him or with him and I just really appreciate those memories staying alive,” she said.
As friends and family remember Derek Johnson, Draper has fresh heartache. Draper Fire Department Battalion Chief Matt Burchett was killed on August 13 while helping fight a wildfire in California.
“That was like deja vu and my heart just aches for his wife and his little boy,” Johnson said.
Johnson said there is nothing anyone can say that will make something like that easier for a family, but she said there is some comfort in knowing the first responders’ legacies will live on.
“It feels impossible, but we make it,” she said. “We’re going to live and thrive and survive, and we’re going to teach our little boys who their daddies were.”
She says there is something everyone can learn from Derek Johnson’s life.
“Just always be kind. Be kind to people, because that’s what people remember and we all want to be remembered. Derek was kind and it showed in the very last action Derek provided on this earth,” she said.
