Metro officer killed in helicopter rescue added to memorial

By Cy Ryan

Thursday, May 1, 2014 | 3:47 p.m.

CARSON CITY — The name of Metro Police Officer David Vanbuskirk, who died during the aerial rescue of a stranded hiker on Mount Charleston last year, was added today to Nevada’s Law Enforcement Memorial.

Addressing several hundred people at a ceremony in the state capital, Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said Vanbuskirk “dedicated his life to saving others.”

The memorial contains the names of law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

Vanbuskirk, assigned to Metro’s search and rescue unit, had been lowered from a helicopter to rescue the hiker when the officer became detached from a cable and fell to his death. The hiker was rescued.

Gov. Brian Sandoval said 120 officers in Nevada have been killed in the line of duty in since 1861. He said law enforcement officers respond, regardless of fear, and are in the business of saving lives.

Others whose names were added to the memorial were two Union Pacific Railroad officers. Jose Sancedo was shot to death in 1933 during a robbery while he was on patrol about ten miles south of Carlin.

The other officer, John T. Montague, was hit from behind by a steam engine in the Sparks railroad yard in 1905.