Larry Dever, 60, outspoken Arizona sheriff on border security
By BOB CHRISTIE and AMANDA KWAN Associated Press September 20, 2012 6:20PM
FILE - Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever is seen in Bisbee, Ariz., in this March 17, 2005, file photo. Dever, the four-term Republican sheriff of Cochise County, has died in a one-vehicle crash near the northern Arizona town of Williams. He was 60. (AP Photo/Arthur H. Rotstein)
Updated: October 22, 2012 6:29AM
PHOENIX — Larry Dever, the four-term Republican sheriff of Cochise County who was an outspoken advocate for stronger border security, has been killed in a one-vehicle crash near the northern Arizona town of Williams. He was 60.
Mr. Dever’s death was confirmed early Wednesday by the sheriff’s department.
Mr. Dever was driving on a dirt Forest Service road on the way to meet family members south of Williams when his pickup rolled, according to a news release from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.
Another driver had been following Mr. Dever’s truck Tuesday evening and told deputies he came around a corner and found a cloud of dust. The pickup had rolled but landed on its wheels. Mr. Dever was dead at the scene.
It’s not clear if Dever was wearing a seat belt, but he was not ejected. There was no sign Mr. Dever had been drinking.
The sheriff died just four days after his 86-year-old mother died of cancer.
Mr. Dever entered the national spotlight as one of Arizona’s four border sheriffs who asked to legally defend the state’s controversial anti-illegal immigration law, known as SB1070, in federal court. Cochise County, in the state’s southeastern corner, shares an 83.5-mile border with Mexico. AP
