RED LION, Pa. (AP) — Hundreds of police officers are expected to attend a closed funeral Thursday for three Pennsylvania detectives shot and killed last week by a man who had been inside the home of a woman he was accused of stalking.
The service at Living Word Community Church in Red Lion gets underway at noon, following a motorcade to escort the bodies of Northern York County Regional Police detectives Cody Michael Becker, Mark Edward Baker and Isaiah Emenheiser from a funeral home.
The event is not open to the public but the church will be streaming the service online. It’s the second time this year that the church has hosted services for police killed in the line of duty.
Autopsy results released this week indicated that all three officers died of multiple gunshot wounds.
A prosecutor said the stalking suspect, 24-year-old Matthew James Ruth, fired on the officers as they opened the door to the woman’s home. The three were killed and two other officers were seriously wounded.
York County District Attorney Tim Barker said he believes Ruth, who died in the exchange of gunfire, had planned to ambush the woman he was accused of stalking.
The three veterans of the police force have been remembered as devoted to their families and community.
Becker, 39, a resident of Spring Grove, had been a star multisport athlete in high school. Baker, 53, who lived in Dover, was a computer forensics investigation specialist. Emenheiser, 43, of York, was called a perfectionist with dreams of opening a gym.
Becker served as sergeant of detectives and had been on the Northern Regional force for 16 years. His obituary recounted how in 2010 he climbed to the second story of a burning building to catch children who were escaping through a window. He is survived by a wife and two children. A second service, a public funeral for Becker, will be held Sunday at Spring Grove Area High School in Spring Grove.
Baker, a U.S. Army veteran, spent three years with the Philadelphia Police Department before he joined Northern Regional in 2004, first as a patrol officer and then in computer forensics. He had been a detective for 15 years. He was an Eagle Scout and an adult Scouting leader. Survivors include a wife and four children; a fifth child predeceased him.
Emenheiser was a York College criminal justice graduate and served in the U.S. Secret Service before being hired by Northern Regional. He made 104 DUI arrests in 2010 and was named officer of the year, among other professional honors over two decades with the department.
In 2005, Emenheiser broke a window in a burning mobile home in Thomasville and carried a man to safety. Emenheiser’s interests included fitness, home renovations and coaching youth soccer. His surviving family includes a wife and two children.
