From the moment constables Mia Lay and Daniel Vasquez met as aspiring officers at NSW Police’s academy, they formed a special bond. Quickly, friendship turned to something more.
When the pair walked out of Goulburn together last May as probationary constables graduating from Class 365, they shared the proudest moment of their young lives. Within nine months, they’d broken leases on their respective rentals and made a home together.
Vasquez often talked of proposing – a plunge he planned to take during a holiday to Fiji this month. Lay, his “soulmate”, had already told him she would say yes, having joined him in the search for the perfect ring.
On Wednesday, Vasquez and seven of Lay’s colleagues guided her flower-adorned white casket into the expanse of St Andrew’s Cathedral as a sea of blue gathered to mourn the 20-year-old, the state’s first police officer killed on duty in a decade.
“We were building a life together, and it was the happiest I’ve ever been,” Vasquez told Lay’s loved ones and colleagues.
“Mia was my entire world, and I’ll forever cherish the love and happiness she brought into my life.”
Lay died instantly in the early hours of September 25, when the marked patrol car she was a passenger in collided with a tree at high speed in Sydney’s inner-south during an urgent duty response to reports of a stolen vehicle. The actions of her colleague driving, 24-year-old Constable Brandon Torrisi, remain the subject of an ongoing critical incident investigation being overseen by the state’s policing watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.
A serving police officer for less than 18 months, Lay was adored at the tight-knit Redfern police station where she was stationed after graduating. In the city’s eastern suburbs, where Lay had completed a three-month secondment shortly before her death, she was deeply liked and respected.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon on Wednesday posthumously awarded Lay with the national police service medal, the national medal and NSW Police’s medal for ethical and diligent service.
“In her short time as a police officer, Mia shone,” Lanyon said.
Lay, a talented footballer and beloved older sister of four siblings, was formally recognised last year after apprehending a man armed with a rifle in a Redfern park.
“It was clear that Constable Lay was going nowhere but forward in her policing career,” Lanyon said one of the young officer’s superiors reflected of the incident. Policing, Lanyon said, was Lay’s forever career.
Lay’s parents, Clem and Tamara, remembered a loving daughter full of life and fiercely determined to achieve her goals. If there was a star to shoot for, Clem said, his oldest child made it her goal to reach it.
“You were taken from us far too soon,” he said.
As a born protector of those around her, policing was the only career path Lay’s family believe she would have ever taken; often she spoke of the love she felt for wearing the blue uniform.
“Every single day Mia put on that uniform and carried the weight of the badge,” Clem said.
For him, ordinary moments scattered across two decades of life with his daughter are now anything but. In a world without his daughter, Clem said, he would give anything to hold her again.
“Your love is a cord that death cannot snap,” he said.
Among a long list of the traits she loved most about her daughter, Lay’s mother, Tamara, will remember the 20-year-old’s strength, kindness, fun-loving and fearless spirit, and beautiful heart.
“Mia, I love you forever. You mattered,” she said.
“I miss you.”
As the bells of St Andrew’s rang out, Lay’s casket was carried from the cathedral while the state’s most senior officers stood in salute, pausing to honour a member of their family lost. After the chimes, and with her duty done, procession of hundreds of officers escorted their fallen comrade from her final shift.
“Rest easy, my beautiful girl,” Clem Lay said.
“Your watch has ended.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
