COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Tom Jensen was one of the first to find out that his son Jared wanted to become a police officer.
"He said 'dad I want you to be the first to know' other than Natalie, his wife, that 'I'm giving up acting', and he was 26 and he'd been acting since he was eight and I was shocked, but I didn't say anything. And he said 'I'm giving up acting', he says, and this is the key if Jared is known for nothing else Abbie I hope he is remembered for this, he said 'dad I'm giving up acting.' He said 'I want my life to matter, I want my life to count. I'm gonna do all that I can to join the CSPD,' and he did," said Tom Jensen.
Jared gave up his first life dream to chase his second.
"He only got to serve, protect and serve the citizens of Colorado Springs for three and a half years, but he did it with distinction, and with courage, with passion. And that's the single word that best describes Jared I think is passion, and so he fulfilled his life's dream even though he only lived to be 30 years and 17 days old, he got to live it for three and a half years and his life magnificently matters and it always will," said Tom.
Tom said when Jared told him he wanted to be a police officer he wasn't going to stand in his way.
"Internally I had decided long ago that I would never say don't do this or don't do that. I might give my, and sometimes even unsolicited, input about a potential vocation, but Jeff (Jared's older brother) had already been a member of the police department for a good number of years when Jared said that and so I actually wanted him to do whatever he wanted to do," said Tom.
Tom said he foolishly thought Jared would be safer in Colorado Springs than in Chicago, where he lived at the time.
"There's no such thing as any safe place for police officers. Every single day they go out there with their lives on the line and I told Jared the following, I said it in kind of half jest, not as if I could stop it in any way but remember Jared was living in Chicago at the time and I told him, and I called my kids honey even when they were adults, and I said honey you can do what you want but if you try to join the Chicago Police Department, meaning it was so dangerous, I'm gonna break your legs. And he laughed and I laughed and I said 'no you go after wherever your passion leads you honey,' and it led him to CSPD and he did a wonderful job," said Tom.
Tom said he rode with Jared on his patrols a number of times and enjoyed watching his son do what he loved.
"He loved it. He loved being a cop. He absolutely relished it, that's why so many pictures of him shows him smiling. He was a good officer. He did everything so well until that horrible, horrible day," said Tom.
Tom said he will never forget getting the phone call from his son Jeff.
"I was in the Chicago area working and I received a call from Jeff and he said 'dad, dad,' through tears and sobs, 'Jared's been shot.' And I was of course, I mean how does any parent deal with something like that? And I said 'what, where, how' all in one quick sentence as I was trying to keep my heart from leaping out of my chest, and a long story short he told me he said 'dad he's been shot in the head, it's not good,'" said Tom.
Tom said he gave his son Jeff a message to give to Jared.
"When you get next to Jared, I said whether he's still alive or whether God has called him home, you whisper in his ear that I love him, and I said you promise me that you'll do that, you promise me and he said I will dad," said Tom.
Tom said Jeff called him two more times, once to tell him that they caught Jereme Lamberth, the man who shot Jared, and the second time to tell him, what he said he already knew.
"He called me again just as the car pulled into the driveway and when my cell phone rang I knew it was Jeff and I knew that Jared had been taken from me, and I turned to my friend who was driving me and before I answered the phone I said 'he's gone' and Jeff through barely controllable sobs told me that that was what had happened, that Jared had died," said Tom.
Jared, an avid NASCAR fan, had plans to go to Chicago in July to see his first NASCAR race and spend time with his father.
"Jared called me up 24 hours before he was murdered," said Tom.
"He was so excited because he had been following NASCAR racing for years but he was finally gonna be able to see his first NASCAR race in Chicago on July 9, and July 10, 2006 and he called me up to let me know that he had bought tickets, so that he and I and Natalie (his wife) could go there and it would be my father's day gift." said Tom.
That was the last time Tom spoke with his son.
"He ended the conversation and I ended the conversation as we always did with each other and I said 'honey I better let you get back to work,' I said 'Jared you take good care honey,' I said 'I love you' and he said 'I love you dad' and those were the last words that I ever heard my son say to me," said Tom.
Tom said he has relied on his faith, love from his family, and a number of rituals to get him through the hard times.
"One of them includes, in addition to prayer and reading, is checking the Officers Down Memorial Page," said Tom. He said he also talks to Jared every single day and tells him that he loves him, even though he's sure Jared knows that.
"I take a Sunday walk. I haven't missed a Sunday walk since that horrible horrible day I came back and every Sunday I take a walk and I talk to my boy Jared and when I come back I write him a two page letter, and that's just one of my rituals that helps me go on and I will," said Tom.
Tom said as a father he feels a responsibility to carry on Jared's legacy.
"My son, my son can no longer speak verbally for himself and the dreams he had, and the passion for life, and the dedication to his job as a police officer so in the extent that I can and an answer to your question Abbie I want to do everything and anything I can to honor his memory and his legacy," said Tom.
Tom said he spent months working on a website and is currently working on writing a book.
"It's title is going to be the same as the website- "A Father's Love" and as I say in my website I chose that name "a father's love" because for me it's got a dual meaning. I'm a christian, not that I say anything negative about anybody's faith. It's good if people have faith ,no matter what that faith is, to help carry them in times of trouble, but a father's love has that dual meaning: the love that I have for my children and certainly my Jared and the love that God has for his children," said Tom.
Tom said his last breath will most likely be about Jared.
"So until the guy upstairs, who I refer to as God, calls me home I'll continue talking to my boy and doing all that I can to keep his memory and his legacy alive," said Tom.
Tom said the pain of losing a child is never far from the surface.
"It's pain that can't be described. For me it's always one of two places. It's always, it's either just below the surface, when I after a number of years when I could finally watch a movie and even laugh again, it took me years before I could do that, but the pain, the indescribable pain is always just below the surface or else its raging full bore and I have to deal with it, and I do I put one foot in front of the other," said Tom.
He said he will work to make sure that Jared's mission in life will never be forgotten.
"What I would want people to remember were those two lines that he spoke to me, when he said he was giving up acting, his passion for decades, and he said, and I would like people to remember 'dad I want my life to matter. I want my life to count. I'm gonna be a cop,' and he got to do it and not too many people get to live their life long dream. As short as his life was, comparatively speaking, he got to live his life dream at least for three and a half years so consequently his life will matter, his life will count," said Tom.
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