A young constable gunned down in northern Quebec last week is being remembered by relatives and fellow officers who say they considered him part of their family.
   
Hundreds of mourners have packed into an Ottawa cathedral to pay tribute to Const. Steve Dery, who was shot and killed last Saturday night while answering a call at a home in the community of Kuujjuaq.
   
Dery, the son of an RCMP officer, grew up in the capital as the middle of three brothers, another brother is a city firefighter.

He had just turned 27 this month.
   
During the service, a Mountie and family friend read a heart-breaking letter from the slain constable's father Gilles Dery.
   
The father recalled playing hockey and baseball with his son, whom he described as ``a great police officer'' and ``a hero.''
   
The chief of the Kativik Regional Police Service, in which Dery served, said working in a small isolated northern community where everyone knows everybody brought the force closer.
   
``I lost one of our boys doing the thing he loved,'' Aileen MacKinnon said.
   
``As a force, as a family, we mourn the loss of a fellow officer.''
   
Dery's funeral received full police honours, including a march by an estimated 700 police down Sussex Drive to the cathedral.
   
Another officer was wounded in the attack that claimed Dery's life.

Both worked for the Kativik force, which polices the northern third of Quebec.
   
The man suspected of shooting the officers was found dead, an apparent suicide, hours after the shooting.
   
A moment of silence was held in the House of Commons on Monday to honour Dery.