Funeral honors fallen deputy US Marshal Thomas Weeks

CHARLOTTE — A funeral was held Monday for deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas “Tommy” Weeks.

Weeks was killed in a standoff on April 29 in east Charlotte. He was part of a task force that was serving a warrant at a home when police said a suspect opened fire on the group of officers, killing Weeks and three more officers.

Weeks’ funeral was held Monday morning at the Bojangles Coliseum. Doors opened at 9 a.m. and the community was welcome to attend.

Watch the service below:

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• 4 officers killed, 4 hurt during east Charlotte standoff
• CMPD mourns recent ‘Officer of the Month’ killed during deadly shootout
• Department of Adult Correction workers killed in Charlotte shootout
• Officials identify deputy US Marshal killed in east Charlotte shootout

The funeral follows a procession that was held last week. First responders and community members lined the street to pay their respects to the man who gave his life while protecting others.

Weeks, a 13-year veteran of the U.S. Marshals Service, leaves behind a wife and four children.

A crowd of people filled Bojangles Coliseum to say their final farewell. Several high-profile speakers honored Weeks’ service, including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the director of the U.S. Marshals Service Ronald Davis.

Weeks’ wife, Kelly Weeks, spoke stoically and passionately about how loving and protective he was.

“Tommy’s mission in life was to make this world safer and fight for justice so what do i need?” she said.

Kelly Weeks had a message for others about what she wants to see moving forward.

“I need this country to come together, to support our law enforcement officers so they can continue to fight for justice just like my husband did. Thank an officer every single day, encourage our children to show police officers respect,” she said. “This tragedy was the result of somebody who didn’t have respect for human life. My sincere hope is that people remember Thomas Michael Weeks Jr. for years and years to come.”

Weeks was the first member of the U.S. Marshals Service killed in North Carolina in over 80 years.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was in attendance.

“Our U.S. marshals reflect the very best of what a public servant should be: dedicated, selfless, and courageous,” Merrick said. “That is what Tommy did. That is what Tommy was and that is how he lived his life.”

Click here for more photos.

“To my husband, I will love you forever my very sweet man,” Kelly Weeks said.

‘An inspiration to me’

Colleagues, friends remember deputy U.S. Marshal Tommy Weeks

“Heaven gained an angel … and I wish that everybody within this agency and throughout the state of North Carolina and America could have experienced Tommy Weeks,” said deputy U.S. Marshal Ryan King.

After 13 years of work and friendship, retired deputy U.S. Marshal Barbara Yates and current deputy U.S. Marshal Ryan King told Channel 9′s Hannah Goetz that to know Weeks was to love him.

“He’s just a wonderful person and I wish the world could know him like I did,” King said.

Yates said their working relationship grew into a friendship quickly. Many of their workdays would start with a hug.

“I’m just really going to have a hard time not hearing some of the things he’d say to me, or coming in and giving me a hug you know?” she said. “Saying ‘hey me-maw, how’s your day? Is there anything you need help with? Anything you want to do?’ ‘If you’re not busy, I got something I need to go look at. Will you ride with me?’”

The conversation with Goetz was tearful at times. But with those tears came laughter.

King said he started his career with Weeks in Washington D.C. before working together again in Charlotte.

“We were like Starsky and Hutch,” he said. “We tell stories, we share stories, we talk about guide trips, we talk about which games we’re going to go to. We were actually supposed to be going to the Indianapolis 500 at the end of this month, and Saturday, I had received a text message from him saying, ‘I’ve got my outfits ready for the 500.’ And I just told him, I said, ‘Tommy, relax, man, we’ve got plenty of time.’”

Time is something King said Weeks never took for granted.

“Every day for him was like that day before Christmas for little kids. And that’s the one thing that I’m truly going to miss, is just how eager he was and how inspired and motivated he was,” he said.

They said Weeks was intense and brutally honest.

“He didn’t sugarcoat anything,” King said. “There were times where I told Tommy ‘you need to think before you speak.’ He would speak before he thought.”

He was also a huge sports fanatic. He played for the U.S. Marshals hockey team and had season tickets to the Carolina Panthers.

“I wish the world could have seen this guy when it came to his reactions to sports,” King said. “And some people, they thought it was weird just because he was just such a legit fanatic. And like I said, I would sit back and I would be entertained.”

Weeks was also a family man, with four kids and his loving wife, Kelly.

“When he first brought her in to meet us, it was like, oh, oh, this one’s a keeper, you know. I kept on him. I was like, ‘You better put a ring on that finger.’ I said, ‘You’re not going to find anything better than that.’ And I’m like, she is a jewel,” Yates said. “So when he did it, he sent me a text. And I was the first person that got to see it. When she had her hand up with the ring. And she said yes. And I just cry. ‘I’m so proud of you. And I know you’re going to be so happy.’”

It’s these moments that Yates and King, like so many others, will hold onto to remember Tommy Weeks as the person and hero he was.

“He was an inspiration to me,” King said. “And if I ever have to, if I’m ever in an opportunity like that, I want to run towards the fight, because that’s what my mentor did.”

“I told Tommy yesterday -- I got a private moment at the casket with him -- and I spoke to him and I told him I got him the rest of the way, that I will be there for Kelly and for Abby, and they will see me often because I want them to know that Tommy would do the same for me,” Yates said.

“I just want people to know that that was one dedicated person to his job,” Yates said. “He loved his job, he loved what he did, he was good at what he did, and he would do this all over again.”

(WATCH BELOW: ‘My very best friend’: Funeral held for fallen CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer)

‘My very best friend’: Funeral held for fallen CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer

©2024 Cox Media Group