Sgt. Bill Revelle leads a charity bike ride from Aurora to Limon Monday morning April 16. Two dozen officers participated in the ride, which culminated with the officers donating $5,000 to the family of Limon police Officer Jay Sheridan, who was gunned down last year.
Erik Swanson (left), owner of Adventure Cycling checks over Boulder police Officer Jenny Paddock’s (right) bike before a chairty bike ride from Aurora to Limon Monday morning, April 16 at the Aurora Police District One. Swanson ensured the cyclists bikes were road ready for the charity ride which culminated with officers donating $5,000 to the family of Limon police Officer Jay Sheridan, who was gunned down last year.
Cyclists observe a moment of silence before beginning a chairty ride from Aurora to Limon Monday morning, April 16 at the Aurora Police District One. Two dozen officers participated in the ride from Aurora to Limon, which culminated with the officers donating $5,000 to the family of Limon police Officer Jay Sheridan, who was gunned down last year.
Kasey Dalton, an administrative specialist with the Aurora Police Department, stretches before a charity bike ride from Aurora to Limon Monday morning, April 16 at the Aurora Police District One. Two dozen officers participated in the ride from Aurora to Limon, which culminated with the officers donating $5,000 to the family of Limon police Officer Jay Sheridan, who was gunned down last year.
Aurora police Officer Matt Neely prepares to escort a charity bike ride from Aurora to Limon Monday morning, April 16 at the Aurora Police District One. “Immediately after an officer is killed in the line of duty everybody is there for the family, but a year or two later everyone goes back to their every day life,” said Neely. “We want to make sure that the family knows that they are not forgotten.” Two dozen officers participated in the ride from Aurora to Limon, which culminated with the officers donating $5,000 to the family of Limon police Officer Jay Sheridan, who was gunned down last year.

Led by a fleet of Aurora police motorcycles, about two dozen local police officers peddled away from Aurora police District No. 1 Monday morning.

Far away.

By 4 p.m. that afternoon, the officers had made the 84-mile trek to Limon where they delivered a check to the family of Limon police Officer Jay Sheridan, who was gunned down last year as he served a warrant.

Aurora police Sgt. Mike Holm, who organized the memorial bike ride, said it went off as smoothly as an 80-mile ride could — no mechanical issues, not even a flat tire.

And, Holm said, handing the check to Sheridan’s widow was a great way to end the ride.

“In this particular case, you get to hand the check directly to the widow of the officer that was killed,” Holm said.

The money came from the Tour De Force, an annual bike ride started in 2002 to honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. Each year, officers from around the country come together to ride from New York to Washington or vice versa. The rides raise several hundred thousand dollars each year.

Holm said about two dozen officers rode to Limon on Monday, most of them from Aurora, but others from Boulder County, The town of Frederick and Jefferson County.

One of the Aurora officers who participated in Monday’s ride was Officer Bill Pontious, himself a veteran of the Tour De Force ride from New York to Washington.

Pontious said the ride was an important way to honor a fellow officer who lost his life in the line of duty.

“We can never let them forget,” he said.

Holm said rides like Monday’s are a way to continue the spirit of that initial ride in 2002 to honor 9-11 victims.

“They wanted to continue to promote that ideal,” he said.

Today, the money raised from the annual rides on the East Coast goes to help officers around the country killed in the line of duty.

In Sheridan’s case, the six-year-veteran was killed when he went to a Limon trailer park to serve an arrest warrant on a fugitive sex offender. The 27-year-old cop left behind a wife and a young daughter.

Sheridan’s killer, Dennis Mark Hasty, 52, later shot himself after a standoff with police.

Two officers who were with Sheridan barricaded themselves inside the home during the standoff and police agencies from around the region responded.

Those officers included some from Aurora who responded to the scene in the department’s Ballistic Engineered Armored Response (BEAR) tactical rescue vehicle.

Aurora police purchased the $315,000 BEAR in 2007 and at the time said it would be used not only in Aurora, but around the region.

The hulking truck returned to Limon on Monday, following the fleet of bikers on their journey from Aurora.

For more on Tour De Force, visit tourdeforceny.com

Reach reporter Brandon Johansson at 720-449-9040 or bjohansson@aurorasentinel.com