KANSAS CITY, Kan. – When two slain Wyandotte County deputies are laid to rest Thursday, the stadium is expected to be filled with law enforcement from around the country but there will also be dozens of superheroes in the crowd.
That’s because Deputy Patrick Rohrer, who was killed along with Deputy Theresa King Friday while transporting a prisoner, was a comic-con fanatic. So were Rohrer’s kids.
In a store full of superheroes shopping for sick children last Christmas, one 9-year-old girl’s real-life actions brought the comic book store owner, who organized the event, to tears.
Deputy Patrick Rohrer
“A little girl just came up to me. Gave me a bag of coins from her piggy bank, that she had been saving all year,” Elite Comics owner William Binderup explained to FOX4 in December 2017.
“I cried like a baby then. I`m about to cry right now. It was pretty awesome,” Binderup said Tuesday.
Turns out the little girl behind the selfless act was Rohrer’s daughter.
“Sarah (Rohrer’s wife) and Pat would build these elaborate costumes for their kids and bring them all down for the show and get pictures with them,” Binderup said.
But the charity aspect of the comic book community was the part Rohrer and his family enjoyed the most. They played a big part funding that toy drive where they filled 50 shopping carts to give to children at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Rohrer’s in-laws played Mr. and Mrs. Claus.
“It`s tragic when anyone dies, but it’s hard to understand when the person and everyone associated with them is going out of their way to do good things for other people,” Binderup said.
Now at least 70 character actors plan to do the best thing they know how for the children of the fallen deputies, and dress in costume at Thursday’s memorial service. With Rohrer’s daughter’s “Superman” gone, she’s requested Supergirl be at the funeral.
“There are no superheroes in the world. They are just regular people that go outside of themselves to do a hard job, and he was doing a hard job and paid for it with his life,” Binderup said.