<p>INDEPENDENCE, Iowa — Hundreds of law enforcement officers from around the state and elsewhere saluted Friday as they filed past the flag-draped casket of Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Jim Smith, who was shot and killed last week while trying to arrest a man barricaded inside his home. </p>
<p>The funeral, which was open to the public, drew a standing room only crowd to the high school gymnasium in Smith’s hometown of Independence, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Cedar Rapids. Smith, 51, was a 27-year-veteran of the patrol and a married father of two when he was shot and killed April 9 during a standoff with 41-year-old Michael Thomas Lang in Grundy Center.</p>
<p>Lang, who also was shot and critically wounded in the standoff, is charged with first-degree murder.</p>
<p>The Rev. Paul Heppner, who officiated the funeral, described Smith as “a mixture of stern law officer and comedian” who was a devout Christian and loved superheroes, his family and his job .</p>
<p>“Jim’s superpower was his integrity,” Heppner said.</p>
<p>Smith is the second Iowa State Patrol officer to be shot and killed in the line of duty since 1936. </p>
<p>Investigators say <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iowa-police-41a31f05959ea3c761f27f523945030b">the violence that killed Smith began</a> in Lang’s hometown of Grundy Center, 80 miles northeast of Des Moines, after an officer tried to pull him over for suspicion of driving without a valid license. A brief chase ensued, and Lang eventually got out and put the officer in a chokehold, disarmed him of his stun gun and yelled “shoot me!” throughout the scuffle, police have said.</p>
<p>Police say Lang then barricaded himself inside his home with firearms he legally owned despite at least seven arrests for drunken driving or public intoxication over two decades.</p>
<p>Smith, who was the leader of the patrol’s regional tactical team, was among the officers who surrounded the home and later entered to arrest Lang. Investigators say Lang fired a shotgun as the team cleared the upstairs, fatally wounding Smith.</p>
<p>Six months before the standoff, Lang was a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/shootings-iowa-elections-crime-iowa-city-2d98927fb08ad61e480d88823d8c78e9">candidate </a> for Grundy County sheriff. A construction worker with no law enforcement experience, Lang told a newspaper that “any decent man or woman” would be better than the longtime deputy who went on to win the November election.</p>
