Park named for slain Las Vegas police officer opens — PHOTOS
Nicole Beck has driven by the 10-acre plot nearly every day for more than a year, watching it transform from dirt. On one such trip in November, her 6-year-old daughter, Katriann, posed a question.
“Do all the people who are building dad’s park know about him?” she asked. “Because they should really know how important he is.”
When Officer Alyn Beck Memorial Park, named after slain Las Vegas police officer Alyn Beck, opened Friday in northwestern Las Vegas, it represented the product of about five years of work and an assurance to his family that he would not soon be publicly forgotten.
“I think everyone that’s lost a loved one much earlier than anticipated, and especially tragically like Alyn was, just wants one thing: They want that person to be remembered,” Nicole Beck said, referencing her late husband during the park’s grand opening ceremony.
“I feel so thankful that, because of the work that Alyn did, we are fortunate to have this place of remembrance of him and of celebration of his life,” she said.
Alyn Beck, 41, a 13-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department, was shot and killed with his partner, officer Igor Soldo, as they ate lunch at a Cicis Pizza on June 8, 2014. Their killers were two young married people with anti-government and anti-law enforcement views. One died in a shootout with police; the other killed herself.
“I tell people often that I feel like I got a front-row seat of seeing what the very worst that people are able to do,” Nicole Beck said. “And then also the very best.”
Illustrating her latter point, an audience conservatively estimated at 120 gathered underneath a massive white tent to usher in the new park at 9220 Brent Lane, just east of Bilbray Elementary School. The turnout included family, friends and officials such as Gov. Steve Sisolak, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, Councilwoman Michele Fiore and Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.
Sisolak told the audience that he recalled hearing of the officers’ “heartbreaking” shooting deaths — it was a Sunday.
“But sometimes out of tragedy comes light,” he said. “That’s what this park represents.”
For Fiore, who represents Ward 6, where the park is located, its completion is the fulfillment of a pledge she said she made upon election to the City Council in 2017 to first and foremost see that the park was opened.
“Officer Beck loved youth and children, so this park is especially fitting for him to be remembered, and a place where his name will live on forever,” Fiore said, adding later: “Just know he’s never going to be forgotten.”
Fiore and Garry Goett, the CEO and president of developer Olympia Companies, received praise Friday for pushing the project forward. Nicole Beck also expressed gratitude to former Councilman Steve Ross, saying he offered the idea to make her husband the namesake for the park, which city policymakers approved in 2015.
The park’s features include two regulation-sized soccer fields that allow for general field sports, state-of-the-art LED lighting at the fields and basketball court, a shaded playground, covered picnic areas, a continuous walking trail and a splash pad. It broke ground in December 2018.
A memorial sculpture, at least 10 feet tall and designed by sculptor Brian Hanlon, was unveiled at the end of the ceremony. It nailed Alyn Beck’s prominent chin, Nicole Beck joked.
All three of Alyn Beck’s children — Katriann, Avenlee and Daxton — were present for the grand opening. Katriann, the youngest, had a hand in recommending some of the park’s features. Daxton, the oldest child and only boy, who graduated from high school in 2017, was given a scarf by Lombardo during Friday’s ceremony.
“(Nicole Beck) has the coolest kids you’ll ever meet,” Lombardo said. “I can’t believe how strong Nicole is. She’s probably the strongest woman I’ve ever met because I’ve never seen her not with a smile on her face.”
Even so, Nicole Beck acknowledged having publicly cried more times than she ever would want over the past five-plus years.
“But he’s been worth every single tear,” she said about her late husband. “He’s a great man, a valued friend, a caring husband, a super cool, fun dad and an outstanding police officer.”
Alyn Beck was one of the friendliest people you could ever meet and the life of the party, Nicole Beck said. She also recalled a time when, after having to remove a young child from a bad family situation as part of his job, he stood and cried over his then-infant daughter’s crib.
She could not wait until the next time she drove by the park, she added, when she could watch family, friends and others enjoying it.
Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.