MOUNT VERNON — The scope of Tuesday’s tragedy can’t easily be measured, but signs of Skagit County’s grieving are surfacing in piles of flowers and notes scribbled with condolences.

On the south side of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office in downtown Mount Vernon, hundreds of mourners are visiting a memorial for fallen Deputy Anne Jackson.

“I never had a chance to say ‘Thank You!,’ No words could ever say how much I appreciate your service to my community. I will in turn look out for your loved ones,” one note at the memorial said.

Jackson, 40, was killed in the line of duty during a Tuesday afternoon crime spree that left six dead and four wounded.

Some visitors to the memorial simply gaze in silence at the growing number of flowers, photos and notes. Others sign a guest book or bring a bouquet to add. Officers from agencies throughout the county are standing watch over the memorial as well as Jackson’s Alger ranch.

Many of the Thursday visitors didn’t know Jackson, but said they wanted to honor her service to the community.

When Chris and Elizabeth Ebinger-Smith of Mount Vernon told their 2-year-old son Torin Ebinger-Smith that something bad happened and people went to heaven, the toddler said he wanted to bring them flowers. On Thursday, he and his family placed a bouquet of yellow and red roses among the others.

“It’s part of our healing process,” said Alice Holtrop, a long-time Mount Vernon resident who visited the memorial Thursday afternoon.

She said she was there to pay respects to Jackson and to honor two friends of hers, deputies Jeff Willard and Wade Wilhonen, who still serve at the Sheriff’s Office.

Holtrop said she couldn’t afford flowers but she wanted to give something, so she brought a large photo of the deputy she printed off of her computer.

Beth Brown, a 19-year-old Anacortes student who is studying to be a nurse, said she hadn’t planned on stopping, but was moved by the memorial as she drove to class. She stopped to look at the photos of Jackson and signed her name in the guest book.

“Everywhere I go I hear about it,” Brown said. “I just don’t understand how someone could do something so horrible.”

Fiona Verschoor, 17, said she was staying at the memorial Thursday “as long as they let me.”

Verschoor is a volunteer with the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue and took the day to help with the memorial. She lit candles during a moment when visitors were scarce.

“It’s something that struck me. It’s kind of hard to explain,” Verschoor said. “The whole law enforcement community is kind of like a family and felt really strongly about this.”

The teenager, who has always wanted to be a police officer, said the slaying of a deputy and five other people has not deterred her.

The possibility of death is “part of the job,” she said.

“If anything, if makes me want to do it more because I want to stop something like this from happening again, if I can,” she said. “I don’t want anyone have to deal with something this tragic.”

• Tahlia Ganser can be reached at 360-416-2148 or at .