Officers step in to honor bride’s fallen father during wedding dance

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash.- It’s been nearly six years since Washington state Deputy Kent Mundell lost his life in the line of duty.

Just this past weekend, his daughter, Kirsten Mundell, got married. What happened at the wedding has now gone viral.

“We always said my dad was a Bulldog, and that was his favorite dog,” said Mundell.

As Mundell reminisces about her dad, and the day his life was taken in the line of duty, she also talks about the difficulty of planning her wedding day.

“Any wedding is a big deal, and not having my dad there was a lot harder for all of us.”

She knew she had to make it special, and that her dad would have a seat at the wedding, right in the front row.

“It meant a lot knowing that we were able to save a spot for him and knowing that I felt him there. I knew he was there,” said Mundell.

The back of her wedding dress was another tribute, a thin blue line that symbolizes so much in the law enforcement community. It was, however, what Mundell did not plan that no one at the wedding will forget.

Don Jones, the family friend who walked Mundell down the aisle, stepped in first for the father, daughter dance.

“We’re sitting there dancing and then all of a sudden someone taps on the shoulder and says, ‘can I cut in?’ And I was shocked, I didn’t know how to react, how to respond,” said Mundell. “He said ‘there’s a whole line of us,’ and right as he said that is when the next officer cut in. I just broke down.”

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. I mean the photographer was crying,” said Jones. “That crushed everybody who knew Kent, not just his family, but everybody that he knew and people he probably met just once or twice.”

“People need to know that their family’s lives go on, but they’re still affected by it everyday. I mean, I know they’re always there for me, and if I need them, I never thought they’d just show up. It was the best wedding surprise ever.”