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Those who knew him say Lee Newbill always gave 100 percent, no matter the endeavor.
“From being a husband, father, friend and an officer within the police force, officer in a club, he gave everything he could give until quite literally it hurt,” said Tom Wilson, a friend of the slain Moscow Police Department officer. “It was a major effort to get him to back down from his duties.”
Newbill was shot and killed by a yet-to-be-named shooter Saturday night in Moscow. He is the first Moscow police officer ever killed in the line of duty.
First Presbyterian Church sexton Paul Bauer also was killed. Latah County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Brannon Jordan and a civilian were wounded during the shooting, which began Saturday night and ended Sunday morning. The suspected shooter was found dead at the church with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head.
Newbill had been a police officer in Moscow since 2001. Prior to that, he worked as a security guard at the University of Idaho.
His aunt, Dixie Newton Sansom, was shocked to hear the news at her Florida home.
“I thought it had to have been a mistake or a case of mistaken identity,” she said. “He was proud to be in law enforcement. Of course we all worried about him, but in a community like Moscow we thought it was certainly going to be less risky than other places. But you just never know.”
Sansom said Newbill had three children and three grandchildren, with another one on the way.
He served as an officer in the Army and was stationed in Germany during the first Gulf War.
Sansom said Newbill was a happy person with a pleasant demeanor.
“He’s always been a delightful, fun person,” she said. “As a little kid he was lively, mischievous, and not one you could stay mad at. He’d get in trouble and give you that grin and gleaming eyes and even when you said, ‘You shouldn’t do that,’ you’d have to turn around so you didn’t laugh.”
Newbill’s father served in the Marine corps while he was growing up, but Sansom said she saw Newbill and his family frequently at her home in Florida.
Sansom said Newbill always stayed in contact with friends and family.
“He was an extraordinary writer, he’d write newsy newsletters for the holidays and articles for the muzzleloader group he was a part of, when you read something from Lee it was like you were talking to him,” she said.
Newbill was the clerk for the Hog Heaven Muzzleloaders and was involved in fur-trader re-enactments in Moscow.
Vern Illi, president of the Hog Heaven Muzzleloaders, said Newbill was a “likeable guy.”
“He liked to joke with people and tease you all the time,” he said. “He was just a super good friend, he liked everybody. If you met him, you’d instantly be a friend of his.”
Illi also met Wilson in the muzzleloader group.
Wilson moved to Moscow from Seattle four years ago, wanting to give his family a taste of the life he had while growing up on a farm in Illinois.
“My daughter had a dream of owning horses, and Lee was at a transition where kids are moving away and his son was in his last year of high school,” he said. “Lee made me an offer I couldn’t refuse on the horses. He did everything he could to help create a properly fenced area for the horses.”
Wilson said Newbill always was available whenever anybody needed something.
He said he is still trying to come to terms with Newbill’s death.
“Even for the short time he was part of our life I can see there’s going to be a pretty big hole,” he said.
Illi said he still is in shock.
“It’s like a lightning strike,” he said. “It’s not something that’s expected.”