A final goodbye to fallen hero, Sgt. Matthew Moreno

The climax of Sgt. Matthew Moreno of the Las Animas County Sheriff Office’s funeral came when the procession reached Memorial Hall where friends and family told stories of Matt’s memory.

The memorial began with silence, as the packed auditorium watched Sgt. Moreno’s casket being carried in. The silence was followed by grief and despair.

“Matt was one of my best friends. My kids even call him Uncle Matt,” said High School friend Rick Schaefer.

“Going to work right now doesn’t feel the same anymore,” said Sgt. Juan Trancoso of the Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office. “Waking up with no weird texts from Matt, it doesn’t feel the same. Matt was my brother he will always be my brother.”

But the grief and tears subsided for a short time as Moreno’s humor could not be forgotten.

“I know this is a serious and somber occasion,” said Las Animas County Lt. Dan Moynihan. “But I think Matt would be PO’d if we made this a serious and somber event.”

“I can tell you on the way over here from the church that Matt would’ve bragged, ‘I had a parade! Where was your parade?'” said Sgt. Trancoso.

Above all else, he was a father. Coworkers remembered how proud Sgt. Moreno was of all his children, and his children will never forget either.

“He’s my Superman and my hero he’s my world,” said daughter Summer Moreno in a letter addressed to her father read before the auditorium. “He’s my smelly dad he’s my everything.”

But in the end, it was time to give Sgt. Moreno his proper good-bye. When his ‘End of Watch’ played over dispatch for everyone in Memorial Hall to hear, many could no longer hold back the tears.