Navajo Nation Office Alex Yazzie is laid to rest in New Mexico. Photo by Delray Damon / The Navajo Post / Facebook

Alex Yazzie, a police officer for the Navajo Nation who was killed in the line of duty, was laid to rest on Friday.

Yazzie, 42, spent 12 years in law enforcement on the reservation. He started working for the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and then for the Navajo Police Department and worked to keep an area the size of West Virginia safe.

“We are shorthanded," President Ben Shelly observed as the service. "Believe it or not, the Navajo police officers that are here, one officer has to cover 1,282 persons. Farmington has more officers as whole, than the Navajo police as a force."

Yazzie was carrying out his duties when he responded to a high-speed chase involving a young tribal member who was involved in a domestic violence incident on March 19. He was killed during a shootout on the Arizona portion of the reservation, not far from the New Mexico state line.

Two other officers, Herbert Frazier, 41, and James Hale, 48, were wounded during the incident. The shooter, Justin Fowler, 26, was killed.

Yazzie, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, leaves behind a wife and four children.

Get the Story:
Hundreds attend the funeral service for Navajo police Officer Alex Kee Yazzie (The Farmington Daily Times 3/28)
Community shows support for family of Navajo Nation police officer Alex Kee Yazzie (The Farmington Daily Times 3/28)
Funeral procession honors fallen Navajo police officer (AP 3/28)
Officer’s death sparks pleas for more funding, personnel (The Navajo Times 3/27)
Investigation continues into Navajo Nation shooting (The Farmington Daily Times 3/25)

An Opinion:
Alexander Chambers: The Navajo Nation has been without a police chief for seven years (The Navajo Post 3/27)

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