Billings, Montana – Logan Shull didn’t have the chance to spend Father’s Day with his father, unlike many other people.
The 22-year-old spent the weekend, though, remembering his late father by entering his favorite bike in a yearly competition.
“He won last year, but I just thought it’d be cool to enter again for him this year,” Shull said on Sunday. “It was a good way to honor his legacy.”
Darren Shull, Shull’s father, was killed in July of last year while attempting to assist another man who had crashed his motorcycle just outside of Roberts. A Carbon County Sheriff’s Deputy unfortunately struck both guys, killing them instantly.
“Just shock,” Shull said when recounting his initial emotions, “We couldn’t really believe it, you know? It was my dad that pulled over to help somebody and for him to die a hero is just shocking.”
Shull acknowledged that the past year has been challenging for him and his family as they have all struggled to adjust to life without their father.
“He was a family man who always took care of my brother and I and our sisters,” Shull said. “It’s been tough every day.”
The Shulls have gotten scant information regarding the incident for most of the past year. Shull claimed that the family had finally received some answers during a coroner’s inquest that was held in Red Lodge a few weeks ago.
“For awhile, we didn’t really know all of the details,” Shull said. “It’s nice to have some of the details, but it’s just still pretty unbelievable and hard to wrap your head around.”
In the end, the inquest concluded that the deputy should not be prosecuted. Shull claimed that the choice is difficult to accept.
“It’s sad that no justice will be served, because I just keep thinking if it was me going over a hundred miles an hour and I took somebody’s life, I would be in jail,” Shull said.
Moving past this tragedy has been challenging for Lacy Shull, Logan’s stepmother, as a mother for all of her kids.
“I just worry most about my kids’ mental health and that they are moving on and remaining grounded,” Shull said. “It’s been a really challenging year.”
Logan, though, took progressing to a new level over the weekend. Not only did he put his dad’s favorite bike into the competition, but he also came away with two trophies.
“I’m extremely proud of Logan for doing this,” Lacy said. “I know it’s hard everyday that he gets up and everyday that he sees his dad’s cars or bikes.”
The experience was made much more memorable, according to Lacy, by the fact that Darren won prizes at the same bike exhibition a year prior.
“It’s been really hard for Logan,” Lacy said. “He was really close to Darren. They were more like best friends than like father and son. It’s hard, but it’s also nice at the same time that he was able to do this for Darren.”
And Logan claimed that honoring his father’s legacy through doing what he and his father shared a passion for was the greatest way he could think of to try to move on.
“Every day is hard, but this one being father’s day is especially,” Shull said. “Riding his bikes is kind of my way of connecting with my dad because before, we’d ride side by side everywhere we’d go. I just can’t help but think of dad watching down, smiling on me, and being happy and proud.”
