Years before Garrett Swasey joined a Colorado campus police department, he was making intricate dance moves on ice.
Swasey, 44, was one of three people killed Friday when a gunman attacked at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.
The married father worked for the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs and was on campus Friday morning when the shooting started 10 miles away. He rushed to the scene to support a city police officer who was under fire, the university said in a statement.
The university’s officers are state-certified police.
Swasey had been with university police for six years, authorities said. But long before that, he was a junior national couples ice dancing champion, The Denver Post reported.
He and his partner won the junior national championship in Orlando in 1992, the paper cited university spokesman Jared Verner as saying. A few years after the championship win, Swasey performed in a musical skating show in Maine.
As the community mourns the fallen officer, the University of Colorado football team will observe a moment of silence during its game Saturday.
Authorities did not provide details about the shooting. A law enforcement official identified the suspect as Robert Lewis Dear, 59, who surrendered hours after barricading himself in the clinic with hostages, authorities said.
Swasey is survived by his wife, Rachel, and two children.
