LT. SHAFER

SALEM — Citizens who want to pay their respects to Salem Police Lt. Charles “Chaz” Shafer will have that opportunity Sunday afternoon as his funeral procession travels through town while enroute to Hope Cemetery.

“People are welcome if they want to come out and see the procession and show their support,” Chief J.T. Panezott said.

Two fire trucks will be parked at State Street and Lincoln Avenue to salute the 54-year-old police veteran who fell ill Wednesday afternoon and passed away unexpectedly. He had just ended what turned out to be his last shift that morning, joking around with Panezott.

The following afternoon, Panezott sat with Shafer’s wife, Lisa, at Stark Memorial Funeral Home helping to plan his last patrol through the city where he grew up and spent 26 years watching the streets from a police cruiser. (See obituary, 3A)

Calling hours will be held from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, followed by the service at 3:30 p.m., both in the Salem High School auditorium. Panezott said members of the police department plan to process into the auditorium at 3 p.m.

After the service, the funeral procession will exit the high school parking lot onto Ninth Street and travel north to North Union Avenue, turning south and traveling to East State Street, where it will again turn to travel west on State Street through downtown. The route will then turn right to travel north on North Ellsworth Avenue and continue to the four-lane bypass where the route will turn east. From the bypass, the procession will travel south on North Lincoln

Avenue and into Hope Cemetery where Shafer will be laid to rest. Several streets will be blocked off as the procession approaches and goes through.

Panezott asked people for patience with the expected traffic tie-ups and offered thanks ahead of time for bearing with them as the police department gives Shafer a well-deserved send-off.

“As Chief of Police, I never wanted to do this, to bury one of my guys,” he said.

Details of the service at the school are still being worked out, but he’s expecting color guards and bagpipes to be included. Pastor Steven Kenneally will officiate. As for how many fellow police officers and first responders he thinks will come to pay their respects, he’s not sure what to expect, saying they’re planning big and hoping to have everything covered.

At some point, the final call for Shafer will come over the police radio, with no answer received –his tour of duty ended.

Shaffer’s tour began on June 29, 1991 under the command of now retired Chief John Sommers, then he made sergeant on Oct. 1, 2007 and rose to the rank of lieutenant on Sept. 10, 2009. A 1982 graduate of Salem High School, he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Kent State University in 1986 and graduated from the Salem Police Academy on Feb. 9, 1988.

Past chiefs and retirees from the department and everybody he worked with in the past were contacted and all were heartbroken, Panezott said.

Retired Lt. Donn Beeson, who just left the department last spring, was among the many current and past police officers who came to the hospital to be with the family, along with members of the fire department, who also lowered the flags at both city hall and the fire station to honor Shafer. Police officers will wear a black band across their shields for the next 30 days.

Shafer received a police escort from members of the Salem Police Department, Perry Township and the Ohio State Highway Patrol for the trip to the funeral home. Once there, they held a private goodbye, folding the flag already in place and saluting, with Patrolman Austin French leading them in prayer.

“I think right now everybody’s just relying on one another. We’ll make counseling available if needed. People are spending more time at the department,” Panezott said, adding Shafer and the officers on his shift were close and they’re grieving very hard, as well as the rest of the department. Their shift returns to duty Friday night.

Panezott thanked the staff of Salem Regional Medical Center’s emergency department, with whom the officers work closely. They were very accommodating as the police stood vigil with the family. Shafer left behind his wife, Lisa, their two sons and their daughter, his mother Betsy and his brother Scott.

A fund has been set up online at https://squareup.com/store/reflectionsoftime/item/lt-charles-shafer-family-fund by the police department, with 100 percent of the funds going to help the family. The fund can be accessed on the police department’s Facebook page also. Donations can also be made to the Shafer Fund at the Quaker FOP #88, 231 S. Broadway Ave., Salem, Ohio 44460 or the Salem Community Foundation, P.O. Box 553, Salem, Ohio 44460.

mgreier@salemnews.net