DENVER -- The wife of fallen Denver police Detective Donald Young said it's been hard to get up some mornings since her husband was shot and killed.
But, speaking publicly for the first time, Kelly Young said she knows it's important for their kids.
Young said she's been touched by the outpouring of support since her husband was shot in the back on the morning of Mother's Day. Sitting alongside by Police Chief Gerry Whitman and her sister, Young thanked everyone for their flowers, food, cards and notes from. Some gifts and kind words came people she knew and dozens came from those she she didn't know.
She thanked all the detectives who were putting in extra time trying to track down her husband's killer and talked about her late husband's life, death and her family's future.
"Donnie is just a wonderful guy. I mean, he was funny, fun to be with, a great husband, a great dad and you could see from the outpouring of support from the police department ... I don't think there was a person out there that Donnie wasn't friends with. Donnie didn't have any enemies. He just made friends with everybody. He could relate to anybody and I think this is why this tragedy is so hard for me to understand ... He always treated everybody with respect, regardless who they were and regardless of what they had done," she said.
Kelly Young said her husband always felt guilty after having a physical altercation with a suspect and had made amends with people he's arrested.
"That's the hardest thing for me to try to understand -- what motivation, what could have taken place for this to happen," she said.
She described her husband as the "ultimate soccer mom." The family bought a bigger car so he could take more of the girls to practice and to games. He had a great rapport with his daughter's friends and sometimes their parents would call him to ask if he would talk to their daughters about a certain problem or issue, Kelly Young said.
She said detectives are keeping her abreast of the progress of the investigation but the fact that Garcia-Gomez remains at large is not a constant thought on her mind.
"I have no doubt in my mind that he will be found and caught. It may not be this week, it may be next week, but he will eventually be caught," she said. "I want him to be caught so he can't do this to anybody else. What he did was the ultimate cowardly act. If he could do this to a police officer he would certainly do this to somebody else ... He changed the lives of so many people as well as himself. He has a 3-week-old baby, what he could possibly have been thinking?"
She said she hopes Garcia-Gomez is caught, although her biggest priority is raising her two daughters.
"To be quite honest, I don't know where the strength is coming from. Normally, I'm the type of person that would cry at sad commercials. We are a strong family. Donnie gave us a good foundation and he's gotta be somehow helping me with this because I don't know where the strength is coming from. I'd love to just stay in bed all day and cry, but I've got two girls that are looking up to me to take care of them. And I guess that's why a mom gets out of bed every day.
"It's very difficult that this has been so public because it's almost a little difficult to grieve. And I'm almost looking forward to that time. I know, for me, I've had my moments but I have not even begun to start the grieving process yet because of how public everything is," she said.
She said her 5-year-old daughter, Kelsey, understands that her dad isn't coming home. When asked what she would miss most, she told her mother that she was going to miss him taking her around the neighborhood for Halloween, but that her mom would do it.
Young recalled a moment in Kelsey's gymnastic classperiod. "She said, 'Daddy teached me that move. I wish he'd seen it.' I said, 'I think he's watching. I think he's watching you,'" Young said.
Donnie's picture still hangs on the wall by her bed and every night she says good night to him and every morning she tells him good morning.
"I just miss Donnie. I miss him," she said tearing up. "I don't have any doubt that he's not here with me."
Last week's funeral and memorial mass overwhelmed her and her family.
"Whatever he did, he went out in style," she said smiling. "If anybody knows Donnie, they know he gave it his all. And that was giving it your all. What touched me the most was just seeing all the people lined up along the streets. The children, they were either saluting or with their hands over their hearts. I was just in awe ... It couldn't have been any more beautiful," she said.
She said she accepted the life of an officer's wife and she knew of the dangers, but that was what he loved. His attitude was, if anything ever happened, at least he died doing what he loved, she said.
"He was always adventurous, with the motorcycles and the waterskiing. If Donnie wasn't living a life of danger, he wasn't living. He wouldn't have wanted to do anything else, this is what he loved doing," she said.
During the press conference, she was wearing a pin in the shape of a small police badge. She said it had black ribbon across it before, like all the other officers, but the ribbon has since been removed.
Whitman Says Denver Detectives Will Return This Weekend
Donnie Young's killer remains at large and the trail for suspect Raul Garcia-Gomez grows colder as each day passes.
Garcia-Gomez' car was found in Los Angeles last week and since then, several Denver investigators have been in Southern California chasing leads. Whitman was in Los Angeles Thursday as well, getting an update on the search for the 19-year-old Mexican national.
Whitman said Friday that he thinks there are people in L.A. who know more about Garcia-Gomez's disappearance than they're letting on. He said Denver investigators will return from L.A. this weekend.
Anyone who helped the suspect will be prosecuted for harboring a fugitive and police are not letting up on the manhunt, he warned.
Detectives are pleading for anyone who may have information about Garcia-Gomez' whereabouts to call CrimeStoppers at (720) 913-STOP or (720) 913-7867. There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Garcia-Gomez.
Meanwhile, Donnie Young's sister also spoke out. On Thursday, Roberta Schuster told 7NEWS that she talked with her brother every other day and the fatal Mother's Day took away her best friend. She calls Garcia-Gomez a coward.
"I can't believe that someone could actually do (what) that this guy did to the officers -- by coming through another building and ambushing them. Why he did it, what reasons -- and it was at a baptism -- it's just unreal," said Schuster.
She says her brother's killer must have an evil soul and the people who helped the suspect get away should pay for their crime as well.
Detectives believe that Garcia-Gomez is either in L.A. or in Mexico. If he is caught in Mexico, consulate officials said they will consider extraditing him if they have assurances from the Denver district attorney that Garcia-Gomez won't face the death penalty.
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Kelly Young Says She Believes Donnie Is Still With Her
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