WASHINGTON — Amid bright sunshine glistening off dress uniforms and a stiff breeze giving life to color guard flags, hundreds of law enforcement officers and their families gathered Monday for the Washington Area Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service.
“This ceremony is a way that we can … preserve the legacy of all the men and women whose unselfish service and ultimate sacrifice kept us safer,” Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger said. “We thank all of them for their service.”
Color guard arrives: Washington Area Law Enforcement Memorial Service #PoliceWeek @FOPdc1 @DCPoliceDept @WTOP #neverforget pic.twitter.com/D1ofC1Qwfb
— Kristi King (@kingWTOP) May 8, 2017
TAPS for ALL the fallen: Washington Area Law Enforcement Memorial Service #PoliceWeek @FOPdc1 @DCPoliceDept @WTOP pic.twitter.com/o5lJDIcx58
— Kristi King (@kingWTOP) May 8, 2017
The honorees, who died in 2016:
- Arlington County, Virginia, Cpl. Harvey Snook II, who assisted with recovery efforts at the Pentagon after the 9/11 terror attack and developed cancer attributed to that effort;
- Prince George’s County, Maryland, Cpl. Jacai Colson, a plainclothes officer who was killed by friendly fire during an ambush attack outside the police station in Landover, Maryland;
- Harford County, Maryland, Senior Deputies Mark Logsdon and Patrick Dailey, who were murdered while responding to a call about a suspicious person in a Panera Bread restaurant.
- Prince William County, Virginia, Officer Ashley Guindon, who was fatally shot on her first full day on the job responding to a domestic disturbance.
“She wanted to make a difference,” said Prince William County Police Chief Barry Bernard of Guindon, who added that she had a passion for everything she got involved with: “She exhibited the finest qualities that we have in law enforcement: Integrity, honesty, commitment, passion courage [and] heroism.”
The event’s printed program concluded with a quote attributed to Vivian Eney Cross. Her husband, Sgt. Christopher Sherman Eney, 37, was accidentally shot during a U.S. Capitol Police training exercise in 1984.
“It is not how these officers died that made them heroes,” Cross said. “It is how they lived.”
