A woman who was fatally shot outside an Aurora church is being remembered as someone who “stood in the gap.”
A memorial service was held May 2 for 67-year-old Josephine Straham Echols at The Potter’s House of Denver, a church two miles north of the Aurora church where she was shot. She and other members of the church came to the aid of a man who crashed his car. The driver responded by pulling a gun.
Senior pastor Christopher Hill said that if Echols hadn’t rushed from the church to help, there may have ended up being more people to mourn.
Echols’ nephew, an off-duty Denver police officer, shot and killed the gunman, 29-year-old Kiarron Parker.
The Denver Post reported that Denver’s police chief and about 50 officers attended the service.