CFalls native to be honored in D.C.

A Columbia Falls graduate and Bureau of Land Management ranger has been named one of the top law enforcement officers in the nation and could spend some time with President Barack Obama.

Alex Burke will be honored in May by the National Association of Police Organizations for the Top Cops Award. Burke shot and killed sniper Roger Sellers, 42, on Jan. 17 outside Glasgow.

Burke, 36, was part of a law enforcement manhunt that tracked down Sellers after he shot and killed a woman and wounded two others in the parking lot at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital.

Sellers fled the scene after a shootout with police and a civilian. Sellers fled to a farm near the Milk River and eventually went up the river bank. Law enforcement agents tracked him down in the snow. Sellers, armed with a knife, stabbed a tracking dog in the mouth and later charged Burke. She shot him with her shotgun from just a few feet away.

The encounter was so close, Sellers's blood sprayed on her uniform. Burke and seven other officers involved in the incident will travel to Washington, D.C. May 14 to receive the honor along with officers from Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York and Ohio.

In addition, two officers involved in a gun battle that ended a massacre at the Fort Hood military base last November will also be recognized.

Burke said she's honored to be among those officers.

Last year President Obama attended the event and met with police at the White House rose garden. It's expected Obama will visit with officers again this year. The award ceremony is emceed by John Walsh, host of "America's Most Wanted," a television show that solicits the public's help in tracking down criminals. Actors who portray cops on television shows also attend the ceremony.

"I hope I get to meet the president," Burke said Monday. "That would be the highlight for me."

Burke graduated from Columbia Falls in 1991 and was a seasonal Glacier National Park Ranger before transferring to the BLM in Glasgow a few years ago.

In addition to the police award, Burke will also receive an award for bravery from the Federal Law Enforcement Association on June 4 in Las Vegas.

Burke said the police award notification came in the mail the same day the shotgun she used to kill Sellers was returned to her. It had been at Remington Firearms for ballistics tests to confirm that it was the weapon used to stop Sellers.

Police never established a clear motive for Sellers' shooting.