ABCNews.com(BOSTON) — Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was shocked to learn of the death of long-time friend Garrett Swasey, the police officer gunned down at a Colorado Planned Parenthood Friday.
“You can’t explain it. It’s horrific,” an emotional Kerrigan said in an interview with ABC affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston.
Swasey, a University of Colorado-Colorado Springs campus officer, 44, was killed when he responded in support of Colorado Springs police to reports of an active shooter at the clinic. Swasey, a married father of two children, was a six-year veteran of the UCCS police department, said the university.
But before working in law enforcement, Swasey was an ice skater, and he grew up on the rink with pro-skater Kerrigan.
Swasey’s father “picked me up at school every day in high school and drove me to the ice rink,” Kerrigan said according to WCVB-TV, “whether Garrett was coming with us or sick.”
Swasey was a junior national champion in couples ice dancing in 1992, according to the Denver Post, and he then competed in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships with another partner in 1995.
Kerrigan said she learned about Swasey’s death from his father, with whom she still keeps in touch, WCVB-TV reported.
Swasey grew up in Melrose, Massachusetts, about 10 miles north of Boston, according to Melrose Mayor Robert Doland.
“As a class of 1989 graduate, I remember him to be a kind and caring young man with many friends, dedicated to his skating career, and excelling in all areas at Melrose High School,” the mayor said in a blog post.
Swasey was active in his community and his church in Colorado, said the mayor.
“The entire Melrose community mourns the loss of Garrett, and our thoughts are with his parents and family, who were longtime residents, as well as his wife Rachel and their two children,” Doland said.
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