Fallen deputy honored

Charles "Bryan" Vannatta knew he wanted to be a law enforcement officer like his father and grandfather since he was a little boy, growing up in Texico.

"He would get the keys to his dad's squad car and get on the radio. He knew all the call signals," Curry County Sheriff Mike Reeves said.

Vannatta realized his boyhood dream and ultimately served alongside his father as a Curry County sheriff's deputy.

But two years ago, he contracted COVID-19. The disease ended his life on Jan. 3, 2022. He was just 34 years old.

Multiple law enforcement agencies gathered to remember Vannatta and other fallen officers on Monday. Squad cars and a fire engine converged for the memorial service with flashing lights and sirens sounding for about 15 seconds at Vannatta's gravesite in Clovis' Lawn Haven Cemetery.

The local memorial service coincided with a ceremony in Washington, D.C., as part of National Police Week, Reeves said. Members of Vannatta's family were in Washington on Monday for that event.

Vannatta's name, Reeves said, will be engraved into a wall among the names of other officers who died in the line of duty at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in the nation's capital.

Law officers, Reeves pointed out, were not among those who could work at home in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vannatta began his service right after high school when he joined the U.S. Border Patrol.

After about five years there, he returned to his childhood home where he could spend more time with his wife Christina and their two boys.

Charlie Vannatta, also a career law officer, began working for the Curry County sheriff's office when the pandemic left it short-handed. Charlie and Bryan were able to work side-by-side for a few months before Bryan's death.

"That was special for us," then-Sheriff Wesley Waller said, "and very special for both of them in their careers to get to work together."

Vannatta is the most recent local law officer to die in the line of duty. National Police Week began in 1962 when President Kennedy signed a joint resolution of Congress into law, recognizing a time to pay homage to fallen law officers.