Two 'good cops lost'

DONATION ACCOUNTS

Accounts have been set up for both the Lopez and York family through the Okaloosa County Law Enforcement Benevolent Association at Beach Community Bank. Donations can be made at any branch of Beach Community Bank into any of the following accounts:

• 1. Fund strictly for Deputy Lopez's family.
• 2. Fund strictly for Deputy York's family.
• 3. A combined fund to be equally distributed to Deputy Lopez's family and Deputy York's family.
• 4. General donations may be made to the Okaloosa Law Enforcement Benevolent Association.

 For more information please visit Beach Community Bank's web site at http://www.beachcommunitybank.com 

 SHALIMAR - They were both patrol deputies, two of the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office's "good cops," retired military men with children at home.

And for years, Burt Lopez and Warren "Skip" York were J.D. Peacock's friends.

"We walked many a lap around the field we used to train on together," Peacock said hours after both men were killed in Crestview on Saturday. "Not only did we work together, but for sure, we were friends."

Peacock, a sheriff's inspector who once supervised both deputies on patrol, knew them well: Lopez, the "big family man," and York, the "fun-loving guy" who actually loved his family first.

Less than a year after the Sheriff's Office lost its first deputy to gunfire on duty, they became the second and third deputies to lose their lives.

"You've got to realize that when we went to work in this job, we knew what we were putting on the line," Peacock said.

The deputies left behind children - Lopez had five, and York had a 10-year-old son.

Lopez had been with the agency for more than five years.

But York joined Feb. 11, 2007, and had just recently taken patrol duties in the north county.

Just a few months ago, he was on his Harley-Davidson, riding to Daytona on a trip with the Blue Knights motorcycle club. At the hotel, his old boss Peacock was his roommate.

"We're all family here, and we just had a rough year," Peacock said. "There's a lot of us here who are just numb."

For more information please visit Beach Community Bank's web site at

http://www.beachcommunitybank.com

1. Fund strictly for Deputy Lopez's family.

2. Fund strictly for Deputy York's family.

3. A combined fund to be equally distributed to Deputy Lopez's family and Deputy York's family.

4. General donations may be made to the Okaloosa Law Enforcement Benevolent Association.

Accounts have been set up for both the Lopez and York family through the Okaloosa County Law Enforcement Benevolent Association at

Beach Community Bank. Donations can be made at any branch of Beach Community Bank

into any of the following accounts: