Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Fallen Sheriff's Deputy Remembered 10 Year After

10 Years After Fatal Accident, Brian Haas’ Memory Looms in Hendry County
LABELLE, FL. -- 10 years ago, in the early morning hours April 25, 2004, a young, energetic and dedicated Deputy Sheriff Brian Haas was on duty. He had been employed with the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office for about 2 ½ years and was well on his way to fulfilling his lifelong dream of being a deputy sheriff with the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office.

He started out as a correctional officer in 2002 and transferred to road patrol by December 1, 2003. Early on April 25, 2004 that all changed. Deputy Haas, along with Deputy Keith Bennett, were responding from Clewiston to a delayed burglary call in Montura. On the way Deputy Haas was involved in a traffic crash that ended his life at the age of 21.

In the minutes that followed his tragic crash, the world was turned upside down for the Haas family. However, during their time of loss, both Bob and Norie Haas were determined to keep their son’s memory alive. In 2005 the Haas family established a scholarship fund for Hendry County Sheriff’s Office employees, Explorers, and volunteers who wish to further their career/education in criminal justice. To date the Haas family has awarded over $30,000.00 in scholarships.

In 2004, then Hendry County Sheriff, Steve Worley, dedicated the newly built training facility as the Brian Haas Memorial Training Facility and placed a granite monument in front of the building.

Within the community of Hendry County and members of the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office, many of whom knew and worked with Brian, still remember and speak of him fondly. “I remember Brian well. He was a wonderful young man, set to take on the challenges of law enforcement and dedicated to the citizens of this county,” said Sheriff Steve Whidden. “His parents, Bob and Norie, are seen frequently at holiday and other department functions,” he continued, “and they remain involved in Concerns of Police Survivors and participate in an annual retreat that addresses parental survival”.

Those of us who knew Brian are fortunate to have known this young man, who chose to serve his community with dedication, and his family, who lost their son, but chose to keep his memory alive, by serving others in law enforcement and those who have lost loved ones in the line of duty.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:51 PM

    while I understand this young man lost his life

    I think we forget to often the real facts of a situation.
    During his "accident", he was not wearing his seat belt.
    A state law, by the way that includes officers on duty. His injuries would not have been as severe had he worn this life saving device.

    I do not mean to diminish his loss, but to focus the reason it occurred. Too often the ones who enforce the laws, fail to obey them and this time it had deadly consequences.

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    2. Thanks Anonymous, lets take this nice article about remembering Brian and his accomplishments and turn this into a preaching moment for you. I understand your argument, however a 10 year memorial article is not the platform for you to steal the focus with implications that he may have lived had he been wearing his seatbelt. Especially when friends and family who knew Brian are reading this on the anniversary of his death. I suggest you delete your comment and save it for a more appropriate related article.

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  2. Anonymous6:11 AM

    Thanks Amanda,

    Tim

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  3. Anonymous11:14 AM

    Amanda Haas Zabrocki
    while I feel your loss, and you really should use your full name here when making a comment about this, I won't be removing a comment I left here.

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  4. Norie Haas12:15 PM

    Annonymous, You criticize Amanda for not including her maiden name while you hide behind "Anonymous", and fail to even include your first name. Her first comment was removed because she felt it was too strong. I guess you don't need to remove any comments you leave, because no one knows who made them.

    Norie Kathleen Whyte Haas

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  5. Anonymous10:51 AM

    actually
    when I had started to reply to Amanda's post I was very rude to her directly. Fortunately I took the time to look her up on Facebook and see how she was commenting from a state so far away from LaBelle.
    It was then that I backspaced the really rude things I had said.
    As well, you may or may not know that since its posted as anonymous I can not delete them. There is no way to log in and remove them.
    I post as anonymous because I have a job in an office where I SEE THINGS, and post here or other places, that if it was known whom I am, well I would loose my job for sharing the things I see going on that are wrong.
    For what its worth, that was how I knew he didn't have his seat belt on that day! I didn't go into the fact that the county has a policy in place if you are hurt in an accident while NOT wearing your seat belt that they reduce all pay outs of benefits to 25% of what it would have been, you loose 75% for breaking that law.
    Again, though that would have been off topic at that moment. I am merely pointing out some things to you now.
    So in closing, its posted as anonymous I can not remove them, as I don't log into them. I was not rude in my original post, I didn't go off about how there have been real losses at the hands of criminals other places, Hendry County has been very lucky for many years, and have had a very low loss of life for the Sheriffs department and we should be happy about that I suppose.

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