BANGOR, Maine — You can watch the full ceremony on our YouTube channel.
One week ago, Hancock County Sheriff's Deputy Luke Gross' watch ended. He was killed in the line of duty while responding to a call in the early morning hours.
A celebration of life was held Thursday to honor and remember Gross' life.
"5:20 in the morning, I got the phone call, and I've always said that you don't get good phone calls from midnight to 6 o'clock in the morning," Hancock County Sheriff Scott Kane told NEWS CENTER Maine prior to Gross' funeral. "When the dispatch told me what was going on I was in disbelief, it was one of those things I had to take a deep breath...eventually they told me ultimately that we had lost Deputy Gross."
Gross, 44, was responding to a call of a car on the side of the road, early in the morning.
"It isn't a dream, it's a nightmare," Kane said.
"When I heard it, when I was told, I was like, it was just again shock and disbelief. You have a hard time believing it, understanding it," Maine State Police lieutenant Roderick Charette, who knew and worked alongside Deputy Gross in some scenes, said.
"This is one of our own, this is our family, this is our friend, this is a person we've worked with many of us for 18 years," Kane told NEWS CENTER Maine.
Kane said it's the good memories and his legacy of hard work, value, honor, and determination that make Deputy Gross a person to be honored and respected by everyone.
"From his work in the schools to his relationships with the people he worked with and around, he was always there to help, he was the complete package," Charette said.
Charette describes deputy Gross as a great human being and a great cop.
"As a police officer, he was dependable. If you went to a complaint, you always knew he had your back, that he was there to help you as well as himself. Those kinds of traits just don't come with everybody. He was a unique law enforcement officer and he was a unique friend," Kane said.
"He was just a genuine individual," Charette said.
Sheriff Kane said deputy Gross was the kind of person the world needs more of.
"We retired his call number. No one will ever use Hancock 9 as a call number ever again. Someone will take his spot but no one will ever replace him," the sheriff said.
Kane tells NEWS CENTER Maine that Deputy Gross loved being with kids, from teaching a class of sixth graders to laying in the ground coloring with the little ones.
He said the void deputy Gross leaves, will be never filled, and that his legacy will carry on.
"Just his affable manner, he was just a really nice guy, always willing to chat, always had a smile in his face, always willing to talk about that last call, things that were going on and just even general conversation, laugh and joke and he was just a genuine individual," Charette said.