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A Toronto Police officer offers his condolences on July 4, 2011, to a visitor at the viewing for York Regional Constable Garrett Styles who died in the line of duty last week.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail

Hundreds of civilians and police officers waited in the hot sun outside a packed funeral home Monday afternoon, waiting to pay tribute to fallen officer Garrett Styles.

Constable Styles, of the York Regional Police, died in the line of duty last week after being pinned by a vehicle driven by a 15-year-old boy. He was at the end of the last shift of his work week and due to spend four days off with his family, including a nine-week-old son.

The Vaughan funeral home was at capacity for most of the afternoon, with about 100 people waiting in line outside for the first few hours as the temperature straddled the 30-degree mark. The crowd attending the visitation comprised of about half uniformed officers and half plainclothes police and civilians. Members of Toronto-area police, medical and fire services also showed up to pay their respects.

"The public … can see that Garrett was just a salt-of-the-earth guy - the type of guy you wanted to be your neighbour," Inspector Shelley Rogers said outside Jerrett Funeral Home's Vaughan Chapel Monday afternoon.

Insp. Rogers knew Constable Styles since he was a teenager, she said, through his father, who was also an officer with the York Regional Police. She acted as spokesperson for the police force while Captain Eric Jolliffe joined Constable Styles's family in the receiving line.

"We deal with a small segment of the population all the time, and … it's times like this that we see the public come out that we realize, 'That's why we put the uniform on everyday. That's why we're sworn to serve and protect. And that's why we are prepared to give our lives,' " Insp. Rogers said. "That's what we signed up to do, that's what Garrett signed up to do, and that's what he did, unfortunately, last week."

Michael Donly, who has previously worked in the security industry and had friends in common with Constable Styles, stopped by the officer's visitation on Monday. "It's important to show the community cares for the work these guys are doing, putting their lives on the line every day," Mr. Donly said. "We appreciate the work they do."

Donna Lamoureux is a civilian who works as a trainer with the York Regional Police, where Constable Styles's wife, Melissa, is also a civilian employee. "When someone goes down, it affects everybody," Ms. Lamoureux said. "It's very heart-wrenching. I know his wife and she just had a baby, and it's very hard to be going through [raising the child]as well as this now."

Thousands of people are expected to attend Constable Styles's funeral on Tuesday July 5 at the Ray Twinney Recreation Complex in Newmarket, Ont. A procession will begin at 10:30 a.m., at the Upper Canada Mall leading to the nearly 3,700-seat complex, where the funeral is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

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