Seaside police Sgt. Jason Goodding kept in touch with his old high school football coach for two decades after the younger man moved 70 miles northwest to the small city on Oregon’s Pacific coast, sometimes meeting him for lunch in the officer’s adopted town.
This week, the coach mourned Goodding on the very field where the officer had played — one of two public vigils that drew hundreds of people to honor the officer who was gunned down a week earlier.
Goodding, 39, was fatally shot in Seaside, an Oregon community of about 6,400 people, on the night of February 5 as he tried to arrest a fugitive, police said.
Both Seaside and Sherwood, the city where he grew up just southwest of Portland, have witnessed an outpouring of emotion over the fallen officer, a married father of two daughters.
In Sherwood on Monday, hundreds gathered at the high school football field to remember Goodding. His former coach, John Hackworth, was choked up as he remembered his former student-athlete.
“You would see him walking the halls, and there was a sparkle,” Hackworth told CNN affiliate KATU. “That’s what made him great.”
Goodding made his mark in Seaside not only as a police officer but also a youth sports coach. Similar to the scene in Sherwood, hundreds packed a baseball field in Seaside on Sunday night, penetrating the darkness with points of light from the candles they held.
One of those there, Roberta Rowe, told KATU that Goodding had served as an unofficial mentor to her daughter — now an adult with children — sometimes talking with her at a nearby skate park.
“He helped people. He helped my daughter,” Rowe told KATU.
Police said Goodding and another officer were trying to arrest Phillip Ferry, 55, after they encountered him on a street in Seaside. Ferry was wanted for alleged felony assault.
While resisting arrest, Ferry shot Goodding, and the other officer shot Ferry, police said. Both Goodding and Ferry died at local hospitals.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has ordered all flags at public institutions in the state to be flown at half-staff to honor Goodding this Friday, when a memorial service will be held at the Seaside Convention Center at 1 p.m. PT
Goodding is among at least five U.S. law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty this year, and among three to have been fatally shot, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
