SHERIDAN, Wyo. - Friends of Nevada Krinkee, the Sheridan police officer shot and killed in the line of duty Tuesday, are doing their best to remember their friend.
Krinkee was killed Tuesday while trying to serve a man a trespass warning near the intersection of Fifth Street and Val Vista Street. The suspect fled and barricaded himself into a nearby home, which turned into a nearly 30-hour-long standoff that ultimately finished after 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Sheridan residents have formed a memorial at the police station, centered around Krinkee's vehicle, where flowers, teddy bears, notes, balloons, and other tributes were placed.
Krinkee grew up in Bozeman. Longtime childhood friends Ryan DeJarlais, Reid Norsworthy, and Caleb Jorgenson were all grief-stricken when they heard the news.
"Anybody that knew him, especially those of us that grew up together with him, he was like a brother to us," DeJarlais said Wednesday. "Just spending time with him was always a blast. I'll always cherish those memories for the rest of my life."
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Norsworthy said his high school experience was changed for the better thanks in large part to Krinkee.
"It's devastating because he was such a great guy in high school," Norsworthy said. "I don't know what I would have been like if I had never met him before. High school would have been completely different, so it's almost like having a role model taken away from you."
All of those friends are left thinking about the good times, but they each said they found comfort in knowing that Krinkee ended up serving his country in multiple ways. He was in the US military before becoming a police officer, which were career paths he talked about as early as middle school.
"You kind of knew that career path for him," Jorgenson said. "He always had that servant's heart."
Norsworthy said his acts of service were apparent always, even in their early days as friends.
"He was a leader," Norsworthy said. "He was always pretty protective of his friends and stuff like that so it makes sense."
And while they are all mourning the loss of their friend, they each said there's comfort in knowing he died doing what he loved.
"I know that he's that kind of personality that would lay his life down for a stranger," Jorgenson said. "And he lived that out through the army and then serving the general public."
