Brewer orders flags at half-staff to honor Dever

PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer has ordered flags at the Capitol and all Arizona state government buildings be flown at half-staff Wednesday in honor of Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever, who died in a car accident.

The flags will remain lowered until sunset Wednesday.

Brewer released a statement on Dever’s death:

“Like all Arizonans, I was shocked to learn this morning that Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever had been killed hours earlier in a one-car accident while traveling in northern Arizona. True to form for this husband, father of six and grandfather, he was reportedly en route to meet several members of his family for a Fall hunting and camping trip in the Arizona high country.

“I had known Sheriff Dever for well over a decade, stretching back to my days with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. I’ll remember him in his cowboy hat – soft-spoken and unfailingly polite, but firm in his beliefs and steady in his service to the law. In the truest sense, Sheriff Dever was a Western lawman and country gentleman.

“Arizona has lost a leader of more than three decades in our law enforcement community. My thoughts and prayers today — and those of Arizonans, I am sure — are with his wife, Nancy, their children, friends and colleagues as they cope with this terrible loss.

“In honor of Sheriff Larry Albert Dever and his 34 years of dedicated service to the State of Arizona, and for the peace of mind he has provided the citizens of Cochise County, I have ordered that flags at all State buildings be lowered to half-staff until sunset today, September 19, 2012, and again on his day of interment, for which services are pending.”