UCSC Scholarship Created in Memory of Slain Santa Cruz Police Officer Elizabeth Butler

A scholarship fund has been created in memory of University of California at Santa Cruz graduate and Santa Cruz police Det. Elizabeth Butler who was killed on-duty with another officer last year, a university spokesman said.

Butler graduated from UCSC's Community Studies program in 1996, and then joined the Santa Cruz Police Department.

She died in the line of duty on Feb. 26, 2013, at the age of 38, university spokesman Guy Lasnier said.

Butler and Det. Sgt. Loran "Butch" Baker, 51, were shot and killed as they investigated a misdemeanor sexual assault.

The gunman, Jeremy Goulet, was killed in a shootout by authorities.

The Elizabeth Butler Memorial Scholarship will support a UCSC student while on field study in Santa Cruz County, Lasnier said.

During Butler's field study, she worked at La Familia Center in Santa Cruz's Beach Flats neighborhood for six months and later said that her experience there influenced her decision to join the police department.

Mary Beth Pudup, director of the UCSC program from which Butler graduated, said Butler's "commitment to serving the Santa Cruz community got its start during her field study."

Pudup, with the support of Butler's friends and family, organized the scholarship fund and made the initial gift as the one-year anniversary of Butler's death approached, Lasnier said.

Scholarship winners will be selected based on the academic merit of the proposed field study and its relation to social conditions in Santa Cruz, according to Lasnier.

Contributions to the scholarship may be made online here.

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