600 mourners share in loving celebration of Lukus Glenn's life

from The Oregonian, by Kate Taylor


SUMMARY: 9-1-1 shooting His compassion and smile are recalled, and a HOPE shirt is unveiled
TIGARD --Lukus Glenn's death on Sept. 16 was sudden, violent and followed by anguished questions about how police and community agencies should handle teenagers in crisis.

His memorial on Saturday, by contrast, was empty of such questions and full of memories and images loved ones hold of the 18-year-old football star.

After about 600 people filled Tigard High School's Deb Fennell Auditorium, former coaches and friends spoke of his skills as a kicker as well as his compassion and gift for making people laugh.

Glenn was often late to class, said Scott Gilsdorf, a Tigard High School English teacher. But when he was, Glenn would approach his teacher sheepishly, usually with a mocha for Gilsdorf or a little leftover lunch to share.

As many of Glenn's friends and family laughed in recognition, Gilsdorf said, "He'd always have that great, great smile, and huge, huge dimples." Glenn was always the one with the bag of Doritos and salsa to share in the back of the classroom, his teacher said.

Police --who shot Glenn in the early morning hours after his mother called 9-1-1 to report that he was drunk and threatening himself and others with a knife --were mentioned only on a T-shirt worn and sold by many of his friends at the memorial.

The T-shirt bears the word HOPE and, underneath, the phrase Help Officers Peacefully Enforce. Proceeds from the T-shirt, students and parents said, will go to local police departments to help provide more police officers with training in ending a crisis peaceably.

Two Washington County sheriff's deputies are on routine leave until an investigation is complete. Rob Bletko, Washington County's chief deputy district attorney, said he expects to take one more week before determining whether to present the case to a grand jury.

Several at the memorial talked about how difficult it is to understand how Glenn died. The youth spent the hours leading up to the shooting having dinner with his girlfriend and her parents, going to a football game and then to a party in Tigard.

"If you keep asking yourself that, you can drive yourself crazy," said Frank Geske, one of Glenn's mentors and former coaches. "God's ways are not our ways, and our ways are not God's ways."

One thing Geske has decided to do as a result of his young friend's death, he said, is to make a list of everyone he loves and put a check next to the name of everyone he's said "I love you" to.

"There are some I still need to do," Geske said. "And there is one I want to do (now). Luke, I am proud of you, and Luke, I love you."

Most who took the podium spoke directly to Hope Glenn, Luke Glenn's mother and a longtime soccer coach who had worked with many teens at the memorial. They spoke of how the community must come together and remember to care for her and her husband, Brad Glenn.

Eddie Phillips, a close friend of Luke Glenn's and one of Hope Glenn's soccer students, ended his talk with a poem he'd written for her. As he spoke the poem's last lines, at least 30 young men stood up and turned to her, where she sat with her husband. Then, slowly, the entire auditorium stood and clapped to show her their support.

Hope, it's already done,

I want to tell you that Luke wasn't your only son,

You've helped me grow and helped raise me into a man,

You've been a second mom to me since classic soccer began.

You have so many boys, Hope, even in this room,

We love you so much and I am easily able to assume,

That they all feel like me, and as we talk to each other,

We have so much respect for you,

Are comfortable calling you mother.