Oregon Public Broadcasting

Thousands are expected to attend a memorial service Monday for Kristine Fairbanks – the U.S. Forest Service police officer slain on the Olympia Peninsula last weekend.

For the first time, Fairbanks’ husband is speaking about his wife. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

The memorial service for Officer Fairbanks is at 1pm Monday in Port Angeles. A funeral procession for Fairbanks will close the Westbound lanes of Highway 101 for about an hour starting at 11am.

Brian Fairbanks didn’t want to speak on tape. But he wants people to know that his wife Kris was passionate about her work and her dogs.

Fairbanks was a K-9 officer with the Forest Service. She was responsible for patrolling remote sections of the Olympic Peninsula.

Authorities say she was gunned down by 36-year Shawn Roe, a convicted felon on probation. Roe allegedly also killed an innocent civilian – Richard Ziegler – before dying in a shootout with police.

Fairbanks – who’s a state Fish and Wildlife officer - says his wife had a dangerous job and he felt better knowing she patrolled with her K-9 partner, Radar.

He says she was especially committed to protecting old growth timber from poachers. She’d pin her business card to old trees and write “smile for the camera.” It was a trick to make potential poachers think they were under surveillanee.

Besides her husband, Fairbanks leaves behind a fifteen-year-old daughter Whitney.