Fallen Officers Remembered at D.C. Memorial
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Angela Hohman can't believe the love and support shown by friends and strangers alike at events to honor her brother-in-law, slain FBI Special Agent Samuel Hicks.
Hicks, who was shot to death Nov. 19 while serving a warrant on a drug suspect in Indiana Township, is one of 133 law enforcement officers from across the country who died in the line of duty in 2008.
Their names were added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial wall in Washington, and memorial services will honor them next week during National Police Week in the nation's capital.
On Wednesday, during the 21st annual Candlelight Vigil, attendees also will remember three Pittsburgh police officers shot to death while responding to a domestic disturbance April 4 and the 43 other law enforcement officers killed this year. Their names will be added to the wall next May, said Kevin Morison, spokesman for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which organizes the week.
Hicks' wife, Brooke, son, Noah, 2, and other family members will attend the candlelight vigil along with dozens of officers from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the city's FBI field office. Former colleagues of Hicks from the Baltimore Police Department plan to attend, Hohman said.
"After Sam was killed, we were so focused on grieving," said Hohman of Maryland. "Now we're honoring him, and this is going to be so important for Noah to see when he grows up. He'll know that his father was loved by so many.
"It would be beyond belief to Sam that his name is being added to this wall. The sacrifice he made is being honored."
Congress established National Police Week with a joint resolution in 1962, Morison said, designating May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day. Thousands of officers from across the country attend the week's events, which include a memorial Mass, bike ride, relay race, awards ceremony and workshops.
"It's part of the grieving process. It's being there together, with other law enforcement officers who are going through the same thing you are. It's a solidarity," Morison said.
"During police week, you seldom meet someone who doesn't have a connection to someone whose name is on that memorial. It's a moving experience, and it means a lot to be surrounded by that support."
Morison said another 254 names added to the wall this month were those of officers killed decades ago who somehow were not memorialized on the wall. Relatives or historical researchers typically discover an omission and alert the memorial fund.
One of those added is Pittsburgh police Lt. Albert Burris, who died of a heart attack June 30, 1925, during a shootout with three burglary suspects, Morison said.
Sixty-two Pittsburgh police officers are memorialized on the wall, Morison said. The first was Officer Benjamin Evans, who was shot to death Aug. 4, 1885. The last name added before this year was Sgt. James Henry Taylor Jr., who was fatally shot Sept. 22, 1995.
Before Hicks, the last FBI agent with Pittsburgh ties who was memorialized on the wall was Special Agent Martha Dixon Martinez, a Mt. Lebanon native who was shot to death Nov. 22, 1994, when a gunman opened fire with an assault rifle inside the Washington, D.C., police department's Cold Case Squad room, where Martinez was assigned.
Pittsburgh police Cmdr. George Trosky said a contingent of officers will attend the week's ceremonies, and he expects many more will do so next year, when the names of Officers Eric G. Kelly, Stephen J. Mayhle and Paul J. Sciullo II are etched on the wall.
"Police week is always emotional, but this year I don't know what to expect," Trosky said. "We've never experienced the loss of three officers at once, and that will be on our minds.
"But it's great to see people come together from everywhere to honor the officers. It reaffirms that we really are a brotherhood."
Posted Monday, May 11, 2009
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