By: Keith Dameron, Historian – Colorado Law Enforcement Memorial
Officer Nick Heine, 30, collapsed and died from an asymptomatic heart condition at about 2 a.m. on June 21, 2008. He and other officers had been working multiple bar disturbances in the Historic Union Avenue District when they were dispatched to a fight at a place called Bongimo’s. While running Heine told another officer he couldn’t breath collapsed in the 300 block of Victoria Street. CPR was performed at the scene and for more than two hours at Parkview Medical Center, before he was pronounced dead at about 5 a.m.
Pueblo County Coroner James Kramer later determined that Heine had a congenital heart defect that put his heart into a fatal, irregular rhythm. No one knew about the defect and he was in excellent health otherwise. Responding to numerous bar disturbances that night triggered the irregular rhythm and led directly to his death.
Nicholas Karl Heine was born in Pueblo on August 12, 1977. He graduated from Central High School in 1995 and attended college at the University of Northern Colorado where he majored in music, playing the tuba, trombone, trumpet and drums. He became a Pueblo officer on January 8, 2001. He was survived by his wife Melissa, daughters Nichole, 7, and Rebecca, 4; mother Pat Heine, a corporal with the Pueblo Police Department; father Tom (Maryann) Heine; brother Jason and numerous other relatives and friends.
Services were held on June 26 at Praise Assembly of God Church on Troy Avenue. Pueblo Police Chief Jim Billings officiated the service. An estimated 900 people attended. The funeral procession included about 200 vehicles including police cars, motorcycles, fire apparatus and ambulances. Interment was at Roselawn cemetery in Blende.
EOW: June 21, 2008
Cause of Death: Heart AttackSources:
Chief Jim Billings, Pueblo Police Department
Pueblo Chieftain: Jun 22-27, 2008
Denver Post: Jun 22, 2008