Retiring Bellevue Police officer honored after distinguished career

BELLEVUE, Wa -- Friends and colleagues honored a 35 year veteran police officer in Bellevue this week as he retires after a distinguished career.

At a party in his honor, Major Steve Lynch received his retirement credentials Wednesday from the Deputy City Mayor of Bellevue.

Lynch started out as a Fircrest Police officer before transferring to Bellevue Police, where he worked his way up to Detective, then Lieutenant, Captain and finally Major.

He says one of his biggest cases was the capture of the 'Shootist' bank robber in 1994, who had held up 56 banks across the country over eight years. "His signature and the reason they called him the ‘Shootist’ is he always fired a shot every time he did his bank robbery, so I was kind of the person in Washington, along with the local FBI that dealt with that,” said newly Ret. Maj. Lynch.

So, what's the first thing he did in retirement? He got a root canal on Thursday.