A condolence book for officers Travis Jordan and Brett Ryan at City Hall

Police officers Brett Ryan (left) and Travis Jordan (right) were shot in the line of duty in Edmonton Thursday, March 16, 2023.

Edmontonians can pay their respects to officers Travis Jordan and Brett Ryan in a condolence book at City Hall. Both officers were killed by a 16-year-old boy in the early hours of March 16.

Brett Ryan, 30, had worked for the Edmonton Police Department for five and a half years. Married to Ashley Ryan, the couple were expecting their first child.

We lost our youngest son in the line of duty. No words can express our deep pain and sorrow, his mother, Laurie Ryan, wrote on a social media page.

“Rest in peace my son. We were lucky to have known you for the past 30 years, but today your loss is unbearable. »

— Laurie Ryan, mother of Brett Ryan

His brother, Garett Ryan, tweeted in which he said he was proud of his brother: No words can describe the love that I have for my brother. I will always miss him.

Darcy Carter of the Spruce Grove Minor Hockey Association says Brett Ryan was very generous. He adds that the agent was, for a very long time, a minor hockey referee. I was by his side when he blossomed as a referee, a person and a husband, he says.

I won't forget how his face lit up when he talked about his job, recalls Darcy Carter.

Before joining the ranks of the Edmonton police, Brett Ryan was a paramedic between 2012 and 2015, for Saddle Lake Hospital Center, northeast of Edmonton.

Travis Jordan is originally from Nova Scotia, where his parents still live. The 35-year-old has been in Edmonton police uniform for eight and a half years.

Jessica Shmigelsky remembers his kindness when he helped her cleaning his car after a heavy snowstorm in 2020. His day was rough and his snow brush broke.

Officer Jordan, who was driving on the same road, told him to pull over, but instead of giving him a ticket for driving with too much snow on his car, he used his own brush to brush the snow away . I wasn't expecting that, she said, adding that it was like talking with a big brother.

Officer Travis Jordan (right) with Jessica Shmigelsky, an Edmontonian he helped in 2020.

As he left without giving him her name, she posted their photo on social media. Travis Jordan's sister, who lives in Nova Scotia, saw the photo. He insisted on meeting her to offer her a snow brush. She still uses it.

Edmontonians can sign the condolence book between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The book is available to people as of this morning.

With information from Emily Blake, Geraldine Malone and The Canadian Press