Support pours in for family of slain El Paso County deputy

Just days after the shooting death of El Paso County deputy and detective Micah Flick, the community is taking steps to help his family.

The Fieldhouse Brewery in downtown Colorado Springs sponsored a fundraiser Wednesday. All proceeds benefited Flick’s wife and twin son and daughter.

Niki Fields, the brewery’s owner, looked around the packed interior and said the turnout was better than she expected.

“We don’t know his family personally, but our kids go to school together,” she said. “My brother graduated with (Flick). We just have a lot of loose ties. We couldn’t sit back and do nothing, so we wanted to do what we could — and the best thing we can do is serve a bunch of beer.”

The Whistle Pig Brewery, 1840 Dominion Way, also is raising money for the family. The brewery will donate $1 from every Blue Line IPA sold at the tap from Wednesday through Saturday.

Among the owners of the brewery is an Estes Park police officer, and the owners created the Blue Line ale to honor law enforcement personnel.

When one of the owners is Ron Beers, you can correctly assume he knows what he’s doing.

“My mom is (a) retired Colorado Springs police officer, as is my uncle who’s responsible for bringing us here from Chicago,” he said. “So it hits me personally very close to home, and it means a lot to be able to bring this to the community.”
The owners also plan to use vacant space next door to provide a meal for as many as 300 visiting law enforcement personnel who will be in town Saturday for Flick’s funeral.

The Blue Line, a symbol to honor fallen officers, had another impact at local flag stores.

Large versions of flags bearing the symbol — of a blue stripe and two black stripes — sold out at two of three area stores known to offer them.
“As soon as we came in Tuesday morning, the phones were ringing, we had messages waiting and people were coming in to ask about the flags,” said Jody Ilett, owner of Affordable Flags and Fireworks. “We had several dozen in stock and sold them all. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Ilett said the flags are a relatively new way for people to honor fallen officers.
“They’ve only been around for a few years,” she said. “There also are black and white versions of the American flag, one with a red stripe and one with a blue stripe, to honor all law enforcement personnel.”

More people are buying those flags and displaying them throughout the year, Ilett said.

Local flag stores ordered more Blue Line flags and expect to receive them before Flick’s funeral.

The Colorado Law Enforcement Officers Wives (LEO Wives) created a shirt to honor Deputy Flick. The proceeds go towards The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office Foundation.

Click HERE to order or view the shirt.

Donations for the family can also be made to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office Foundation.

Other fundraising efforts are being planned, but have yet to be officially announced.