07:11 PM PDT on Thursday, August 5, 2004

By TERESA BELL and JIM PARKER, kgw.com Staff

KGW Sgt. Brad Crawford.

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- A procession of 400 police and fire emergency vehicles, with blue ribbons on their antennas and black stripes on license plates, wound through Clark County on Thursday to honor a sheriff's sergeant killed in the line of duty.

The memorial procession, which began at the Clark County Amphitheater in Vancouver and shut down Interstate 205 temporarily, slowly traveled from the southwest Washington county that Sgt. Brad Crawford patrolled to an Oregon Church in Clackamas.

Hundreds of on-lookers lined the freeway overpasses to get a view of the procession that stretched for several miles.

The memorial service that followed at the New Hope Community Church on 92nd Avenue in Clackamas lasted for over an hour and featured a video tribute to Crawford.

kgw.com viewer photo/Steve Pierce A memorial procession for a Clark County deputy killed in the line of duty makes it way along I-205 near the 4th Plain overpass.

Law enforcement officers came from 13 states and Canada for the service to remember the 49-year-old Crawford, the first Clark County sheriff's deputy killed in the line of duty in nearly two decades.

Bruce Crawford told mourners at the service that his older brother valued the lives of others over his own, and said that Brad died while keeping the community safe.

"He'd lay down his life for all of us," Bruce Crawford said.

Crawford killed on domestic disturbance call

Sgt. Crawford was among a group of deputies who responded to a domestic violence call at a Brush Prairie home last Friday night.

Robin Schreiber, 43, allegedly crawled out of his house with a gun, got into his pickup truck and led deputies on a chase until he collided with Crawford's patrol car. The eight-year veteran Clark County deputy died a short time later at the hospital.

Prosecutors believe Schreiber may have accelerated his pickup truck as he rammed it into the patrol car.

Witnesses told investigators it appeared that Schreiber's pickup sped up just before slamming into Crawford's vehicle, Clark County prosecutor Art Curtis said.

Schreiber, an electrician, is charged with first-degree murder and vehicular homicide in Crawford's death. He suffered only minor injuries in the wreck and remained held in the Cowlitz County Jail without bail on Thursday.

Clark County Jail Chief Joe Dunegan said Schreiber was being jailed in nearby Kelso to protect Clark County from any claims of mistreatment, and to allow Clark County deputies time to grieve.

Crawford is survived by his wife, Linda, and five children: three sons Mark, 24, Paul, 22, and Jacob, 12, as well as his twin daughters Darcy and Cory, each 24. Crawford also had three grandchildren.

(KGW reporters Kyle Iboshi, John Becker and the Associated Press contributed to this report.)