LEEDS (NEWS CENTER Maine) — As a new name joins the list of Maine law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, memories of the previous names on the list inevitably come flooding back.
Corporal Eugene Cole of the Somerset County Sheriff's Office was shot to death on April 25 in Skowhegan. A gap of 29 years separates his death from the last Maine law enforcement officer to be killed in a shooting, Detective Giles Landry.
Landry was 36 years old and served 13 years with the Maine State Police. His assignment on Mar. 31, 1989 was to investigate a child abuse complaint against David Grover in Leeds. Shortly after Landry got into his car with a woman who had left the home, Grover sprang on them with a high-powered rifle and opened fire.
Landry barely had time to radio for help before he and the woman were killed. The officers who responded to his distress call also found Grover dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Landry specialized in handling cases of family trouble with an emphasis on child abuse. Dedicated, conscientious and kind were some of the words colleagues used to describe him in the days after his death. Their affection for him showed at his memorial service. A funeral procession of police cruisers stretched for miles with officers standing in the rain to pay their respects beside his grave at Gracelawn Memorial Park in Auburn.
Landry lived in Lewiston with his wife, Louise, and daughter, Katie.