SNOHOMISH — Five police cars slowly drove from Asa Bricker’s home to Christ the King Lutheran Church, where about 250 people gathered in mid-December to honor the man.
Bricker, who spent nearly half his life with the Snohomish Police Department, died Dec. 11 after a long struggle with lung disease. He was 53.
Friends and family remember the talkative Texan as an ace trapshooter, loyal husband and devoted public servant.
“He always had to find some way to get a uniform,” brother Walt Bricker said.
Asa Bricker joined the Boy Scouts, Junior ROTC and Marines before he was hired by the Snohomish Police Department as a reserve officer in 1981.
He went on to serve as a full-time officer for 20 years, including nine years as a detective.
He handled several high profile cases, such as the 2002 armed robbery of Sachi Fine Jewelry. That frustrating case found one suspect escaping to Switzerland, where police believe he remains.
Snohomish police Cmdr. George Perillo said Bricker had a natural gift for communication and that won him the admiration of fellow officers and the public.
“He could talk to someone that was on the street, that didn’t have anything, and treat them with dignity, the same way he could talk to a CEO,” Perillo said.
Bricker certainly was a talker. He never lost his southern Texas drawl. One time, he called into dispatch to report an issue with a motorcycle.
“He took ungodly ribbing for years because, on the air, he called it a ‘motor-sickle,’” his wife Lisa Bricker said.
After lung disease forced him to leave police work, Asa Bricker went into real estate.
“His law enforcement career was about how to talk to people, so it was an ideal fit,” Lisa Bricker said.
Lisa Bricker met her husband of 33 years when they both attended Snohomish High School. The couple married in 1976 and raised two boys, Dustan and Jason Bricker.
The married couple made a strong team, enjoying many of the same hobbies.
Asa Bricker got his wife into trapshooting. She hit all 25 targets the first time he took her out.
“He was so tickled,” she said. “You’d be expecting me to be jumping up and down, but he just came over and gives me this great big hug and spins me around.”
The couple also started a woodworking business. His wife placed his ashes inside one of the small, polished oak chests he made. It now rests on top of a living room bookshelf.
The time they spent making those chests and visiting craft fairs stood out in Lisa Bricker’s mind.
“I’ve got a lot of favorite memories,” she said.
Along with his wife, sons and brother, Asa Bricker is survived by his mother, Myrle Bricker, and his younger sisters, Tulisha Andersen and Melissa Schnelle.
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455, arathbun@heraldnet.com
Talk to us
- You can tell us about news and ask us about our journalism by emailing newstips@heraldnet.com or by calling 425-339-3428.
- If you have an opinion you wish to share for publication, send a letter to the editor to letters@heraldnet.com or by regular mail to The Daily Herald, Letters, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
- More contact information is here.
