Family, fellow officers say farewell

TODAY: (Updated: 1:51 p.m.) A long line of Quad-City area law enforcement officers stretched to cover the entire sidewalk in front of Moline’s Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where mourners gathered today to say good-bye to a fellow police officer.

Moline Detective Sgt. Mike Sottos, 33, shot and killed himself Monday in a room at the Bettendorf Holiday Inn. Officials ruled the death a suicide.

Speakers during the funeral said Sottos’ family and friends are bewildered and saddened by his sudden death.

Sottos had worked as a Moline police officer since 1995, and was promoted in January to supervise the police department’s juvenile crime division.

He and his wife, Debra, were married in 1998 and have five children. Debra also is pregnant.