Co-workers help beloved Everett dispatcher after strokes

EVERETT — An Everett police dispatcher was released from the hospital Monday after suffering multiple strokes earlier this month.

Co-workers of Scott Hockaday, 44, have started a donation drive to help his family pay for medical expenses. He spent nearly a week in the intensive care unit at a Seattle hospital.

Hockaday lives in the Everett area with his wife, Adria, and their 3-year-old daughter, Aerin.

Since 2005, he has worked as a police dispatcher for SNOPAC, the emergency dispatch center serving much of Snohomish County. Originally from Texas, he also was a firefighter in the U.S. Air Force.

Hockaday’s coworkers describe him as a teddy-bear personality who only looks gruff, SNOPAC Executive Director Kurt Mills said. Hockaday was the lead dispatcher during the September 2010 pursuit, shooting and manhunt that shut down I-5 and much of Everett. The suspect later received a 20-year sentence.

Hockaday “is a rock-solid police dispatcher,” Mills said.

More than six years ago, when Darrin Stern became a police dispatcher, Hockaday “adopted” him at work and they became best friends, Stern said.

Together, they like to work on cars and go target shooting.

“We’ve spent several hours underneath each of our cars just fixing and fiddling,” Stern said. “He would do anything for anybody who needed it.”

Hockaday is known for always talking about his little girl and showing pictures to anyone who’ll look at them.

“Everywhere he goes, she’s with them,” Stern said. “He would go to the moon for that child.”

Hockaday is starting to get his speech back but still is struggling to talk, Stern said. The doctors have told them that only time will tell how well he’ll recover.

The fundraiser is online at www.gofundme.com/ixrbug. More than $8,400 had been donated as of Monday. Several of the donor names are recognizable as officers from local police departments served by SNOPAC.

The money will go toward the Hockadays’ medical expenses and cover time off work. Scott Hockaday’s colleagues also have been donating their vacation time to help, Stern said.

“It’s just been so touching to see how many people have stepped up to help him and his family,” he said.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.