A group of eight police officers riding Harley Davidson motorcycles roared up to the ASU Police Station on Friday in honor of fallen ASU Police officer James Lister.
Lister, 54, passed away Dec. 16 while on duty at the Tempe campus from an apparent heart attack, said ASU Police Chief John Pickens.
The police officers who honored Lister are part of a law enforcement motorcycle club known as The Choir Boys.
The Choir Boys, decked out in denim and leather biker vests, presented a $2,500 check to Chief Pickens. He will pass the check along to the Lister family so members can use it to help pay for funeral expenses.
The Choir Boys started in California in 1991, said Patrick Foster, the president of the East Valley region of group. It is comprised of both active and retired law enforcement officers and exists solely to raise money to donate to the families of fallen officers.
The Choir Boys raise money by holding five events a year where there are raffles, music and motorcycle rides, Foster said.
All of the officers in The Choir Boys work voluntarily and 100 percent of the proceeds go to fallen officers, he said.
Lister had only been working with the ASU Police Department since April, Pickens said.
Before coming to ASU, Lister served 33 years with the Phoenix Police Department. Though his tenure with ASU was short, he had already made an impact on the department.
“He was professional, dedicated and he represented the department well,” Pickens said. “He is already missed.”
On Dec. 27, ASU Police and the Phoenix Police Department held a memorial for Lister on ASU’s West campus.
Lt. Eric Reed of the Arizona Department of Revenue, who is a member of The Choir Boys and a friend of Lister, said Lister’s death came as a devastating shock to him.
“We used to lift weights together,” Reed said. “His heart attack is such a surprise.”
The day before Lister’s death, he had responded to a fight on the Tempe campus. Reed said it was hard to say if the fight had any correlation with Lister’s heart attack.
“Sometimes police work escalates you and it’s hard to de-escalate, especially as you begin to get older,” Reed said. “One thing I’m sure of though is that Lister died doing what he loved doing.”
Reach the reporter at danielle.legler@asu.edu
