Residents can pay their respects to fallen San Marcos officer during April 20 procession

San Marcos residents are asked to safely pay their respects to fallen San Marcos Police Department officer Justin Putnam at approximately 3:20 p.m. April 20, as a police escort makes its way from Austin to Thomason Funeral Home in San Marcos, according to a city release.

The procession is expected to leave Austin at 3 p.m. and travel down I-35 to San Marcos, with arrival sometime after 3:20 p.m.

Putnam was killed in the line of duty March 18 when he and other officers answered a domestic violence call in the city. Putnam and officers Justin Mueller and Franco Stewart were all shot in an ambush attack at Twin Lake Villas Apartments. Mueller and Stewart were taken to the hospital for surgery and were listed in critical condition March 19. The gunman was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

The route to pay respects to Putnam will exit at Yarrington Road (exit 210), travel through the Blanco Vista neighborhood, back to I-35, exit at Wonder World Drive and drive by the San Marcos Police Department, turn around at McCarty Lane and back to Wonder World where it will go to Thomason Funeral Home, 2001 RR 12.

The San Marcos Fire Department and San Marcos Utility will have bucket trucks along the route at Yarrington and along Wonder World on the west side of the overpass in honor of Putnam.

“Media and bystanders are asked to take extra precautions for officer safety during the procession, including keeping a safe distance from the procession as it passes,” interim Police Chief Bob Klett said in the release.

Visitors to the Blanco Vista neighborhood are asked to park along side streets and not the thoroughfare streets in order to keep those clear for the procession vehicles and to allow bystanders to stand along the route. Due to coronavirus, bystanders expecting to encounter others are encouraged to wear a mask and keep a distance of at least 6 feet from others.