Remembering two fallen Santa Cruz officers, two years later

Thursday marks two years since Santa Cruz police officers Elizabeth Butler and Butch Baker were gunned down trying to arrest a sexual assault suspect. On Thursday, the Santa Cruz Police Department and the community remembered them with a vigil for the officers in downtown Santa Cruz.

Simultaneously the Police Department and community members held ceremonies to honor Baker and Butler. Earlier in the day there was a symbolic moment of silence at the Police Department from 3:23 p.m., the time Baker and Butler were shot, to just after 4 p.m. when suspect Jeremy Goulet was killed.

Police said it’s a gesture they started last year and plan to continue to do it every year. Flags flew at half-staff and officers wore black stripes over their badges to pay tribute to Baker and Butler.

Police said explained what this moment was really about.

“What we’re trying to do is remember them for the incredible family members that they were the mothers and fathers that they were, the kids that they were and really honor them in a positive way and not try to go back to the actual tragedy of that day,” Lt. Bernie Escalante said.

Escalante went on to say that the honor guard was there as a symbolic gesture because they believe that Butler and Baker’s spirits are with them in that garden and the honor guard is watching over them.

The community really wanted to have their own celebration of life for the officers.

Whether it was the first shots fired that took the lives of Butler and Baker or the last shots fired that took the life of the suspect, people that live in that area didn’t hear one without the other. We spoke to one resident who had a moment with the detectives that he’ll never forget.

“Pretty shocking since it was the last time. I was the last person to talk to them,” said Jesse Lemic, who said he was out for a walk on February 26 near Goulet’s home.

“As I was nearing the end of my walk I was confronted by Officer Butler,” Lemic said.

He recalls walking right past suspect Goulet’s house and Det. Elizabeth Butler who had just showed up thought she saw him walk out of that house.

Lemic said Det. Sgt. Butch Baker joined the conversation on Branciforte Avenue.

“They questioned me for at least 10 minutes making sure that I lived in the neighborhood,” Lemic said. “Right after they let me go, it wasn’t five minutes before the gunfire erupted.”

Lemic said he heard the gunfire that ended Butler and Baker’s lives at Goulet’s house while they were doing a routine check up on a sexual assault investigation. Now two years later, fresh flowers accompany their memorial.

“To this day, I think I still go back and try to put together the pieces of how that puzzle unfolded,” said Santa Cruz Lt. Bernie Escalante.

Doyle Street was where that puzzle ended, two doors down from Lemic’s house. Neighbors said that when police got in the shootout with Goulet, nearby garage doors were covered in bullet holes. They’ve since been replaced but a cement pillar that was marked still remains.

Whether it’s the flowers near the roadway, outside of Goulet’s old house or a punctured pillar, Lemic doesn’t need any of those to remember what kind of officers Baker and Butler were.

“Over the intervening time I thought that they may have had a premonition that they were in a dangerous situation and they were just being extra cautious,” Lemic said.

Goulet lived next to a preschool. The owner didn’t want to speak on camera but she told NewsChannel 5’s Jake Reiner that a week before Butler and Baker were killed she had just received lockdown training.

She said she remembered thinking “why would I need this in Santa Cruz?” None of her 14 students were harmed and she’s thankful she knew what to do.