Oct. 28--Two months before his death on Thursday, a Pinal County SWAT team member smashed through a window and pulled a woman and her husband from a burning house.
Sgt. Tate Lynch was among a group of Casa Grande police officers who discovered a couple trapped in a house fire in August, according to news reports. Lynch told the Casa Grande Dispatch newspaper he used a shovel to break through a bathroom window, where he found the woman.
Moments later, he and another officer went into the smoke-filled house, found the man on a hallway floor and carried him out.
"We picked him up and got out as quickly as we could," Lynch told the newspaper.
Last week, the 36-year-old was training in Florence with the county SWAT team, made up of officers from throughout the area, when he fell from a wall about two stories and hit his head, county officials said. He was flown to a Scottsdale hospital where he died.
Following the Aug. 19 fire, Lynch told the Dispatch he was proud of his fellow officers. "Everybody acted courageously, and at the time saved two people's lives," Lynch said.
That tally would not stand, however. The woman he pulled from the house, Grace Webb, 59, was taken to a Valley hospital and died later that day, the newspaper stated. The woman's husband, William Webb, 64, survived
The story is one of the few vignettes of Lynch's life to be revealed since his death.
Another, which emerged Friday, is that Lynch was the sole provider for his wife and their three children.
Christie Lynch took care of the children while her husband worked in Casa Grande and Pinal County, according to an e-mail sent to members of a statewide police union.
Officer Jon Marshall, who also is the treasurer of the city's police union, said coping with the death was "unfamiliar" for the police department.
"The shock of Tate's tragic death may be around for some time," Marshall wrote. "However, the reality of Christie and her children trying to make ends meet will soon hit."
He asked union members to give money to the family through an account, No. 8453628300, set up in Tate Lynch's name at Wells Fargo Bank.
A memorial service for Lynch is being planned, and investigators with the state Department of Public Safety are looking into the death.
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