FAYETTEVILLE : Memorial honors officers who died in the line of duty
Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/225748/
FAYETTEVILLE — Losing a loved one to the bullet of a criminal bonds families to those who still wear a badge.
“I still have my crying moments, but it makes it easier because I know the guys are there,” said Myrrah Mueller, after a ceremony Wednesday honoring officers such as her late husband, West Fork Police Chief Paul Mueller.
Mueller was among 18 officers honored at the Northwest Arkansas Law Enforcement Memorial. Mueller was shot and killed on a traffic stop March 20, 1981, at the age of 38.
Members of the Fayetteville Police Department honor guard presented family members in attendance with a single rose and shell casings from the gun salute for the fallen officers. The ceremony saluted area officers who died in the line of duty as far back as 1891.
The ceremony was one of several across the country leading up to the national Peace Officers Memorial Day, which was established in 1962 by President Kennedy.
Officer Daniel C. Martinez of the Fort Smith Police De- partment will be among the 191 names called today during a service held at the U. S. Capitol.
Martinez was shot and killed March 23, 2007, while helping a mother retrieve her child.
Richard Englebright, 26, shot Martinez with a 9 mm pistol and later committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
“There are about 800, 000 federal, state and local law enforcement officers; the vast, vast majority are performing their jobs anonymously but heroically every day,” said Pasco.
Every day when those officers leave for work, Pasco said, they must consider “the realistic possibility that they might not make it back — these 191 this year didn’t make it back.”
President Bush won’t attend the event for the first time in his two terms because he will be in Israel, Pasco said, but there will be cabinet members, congressmen and leaders of law enforcement agencies there.
Pasco said he expects 22, 000 to 25, 000 people to attend. Primarily the memorial gives officers and surviving family members an opportunity to get closer.
It also offers a chance for the general public to recognize the sacrifice of officers from across the country, Pasco said.
Though on a much smaller scale, the memorial in Fayetteville fulfills the same purpose. Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody proclaimed this Police Week, and Police Chief Greg Tabor read the names of the fallen officers while the honor guard presented the roses.
Students in the Springdale High School Law and Public Safety Academy gathered behind the families as officers from local agencies stood watching. Just as family members are escorted by local officers in Washington, D. C., Arkansas State Police troopers walked with Jessie Bryant after the ceremony. Bryant, a Washington County justice of the peace, lost her son, Trooper Louis Bryant, June 30, 1984, when he was shot and killed on a traffic stop. “It’s humility, it’s joy,” said Jessie Bryant. “It’s necessary to honor those who gave the last measure of their life for the rest of us who are still here.”
To contact this reporter: awallworth@arkansasonline. com