Trooper valued being good cop, dad

Rocky Mountain News
Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Author: Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News

Colorado State Patrol Trooper Zachariah "Zach" Templeton accomplished plenty in his 27 years of life. 

Two of his biggest accomplishments, his former wife said, were being a good cop who helped others and being a good father to the couple's 3-year-old daughter, -Samantha. 

"If I could tell him anything, I would tell him that he was an excellent father," Amy Templeton said Monday. 

Zachariah Templeton died Friday from injuries he suffered when he was hit by a truck on Interstate 76 as he and his partner, Scott Hinshaw, were assisting a driver. Hinshaw, 38, continued to recover Monday. 

Templeton was raised in Brighton and attended Brighton High School , where he played football, his former wife recalled. He was an avid Denver Broncos fan. 

When he graduated from high school, Zachariah Templeton's career had already been decided, Amy Templeton said. He was going to follow in the footsteps of his father, Doug, and become an Adams County sheriff's deputy. 

He became a deputy in 2002. 

She recalled a conversation Zachariah Templeton had with her father in which he made an eerie prophecy. 

"He never was afraid to die doing what he did," Amy Templeton said. "He knew the risks going into it. He said, 'If I ever die in the line of duty, it's not going to be from someone shooting me. I'll be in my patrol car or outside my patrol car, and someone will hit me who was not paying attention.' " 

State Patrol troopers said last week that the 17-year-old driver who hit Zachariah Templeton and Hinshaw may not have recognized that traffic was slowing down ahead of him. When the teen applied his brakes, he steered away from the vehicles and his truck hit the two troopers.Caption: Photo 
Zachariah "Zach" Templeton died from injuries after being hit on I-76.