|
Home Search |
Published on Friday, May 7, 2004
in the Gainesville Sun
Starke - The men and women charged with maintaining law and order in Bradford and Union counties turned out on Thursday evening to remember the 20 officers before them who died in the line of duty in those counties.
Deputies, police officers, correctional officers, motor carrier compliance officers and school crossing guards attended the annual Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Day ceremony.
This year the memorial service came at the end of a 10-day period in which four officers were killed in separate incidents around the state, including the death of a Lake City trooper.
"Law enforcement has had a bad couple of weeks," Union County Sheriff Jerry Whitehead told the crowd of nearly 300 who gathered at the Bradford County Fairgrounds.
Whitehead's father, John, was sheriff for more than 30 years, including the time in 1961 when two Union County deputies were killed on the same day.
"As a young boy, I remember my father crying for the first time when that happened," said Jerry Whitehead, who was first elected sheriff in 1984. "One of those deputies - Ronald Jackson - was my first cousin."
Death in the line of duty is something that is long remembered in the two counties that used to be one.
As State Attorney Bill Cervone read the roll of those killed on duty, related survivors were asked to stand. Four generations of the Epperson family rose when the 1885 death of Sheriff George W. Epperson and the 1890 death of Sheriff Henry W. Epperson were read.
"This is the first time I have been able to come to this (memorial), and it was so beautiful, so emotional," said Betty Epperson Mizelle of Williston. George was her paternal great-grandfather and Henry was her great-uncle.
More recently - on April 27 - Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Sgt. George A. "Andy" Brown III was killed when his car crashed while he prepared to overtake a driver in Columbia County.
On Thursday evening, Brown's love for his job was recalled by FHP Lt. Tim Hines.
Brown had retired from the patrol, but returned to work in less than a year and was explaining his decision to Hines last summer when he said something prophetic.
"He told me, 'I love this job - I could do it until I die,' " Hines said.
Marion County Sheriff's Officer Chief of Staff Fred LaTorre reminded the crowd that being killed in the line of duty is nothing new to law enforcement or correctional officers. He said that since the first line of duty death - when a New York deputy was shot and killed in 1792 - America has had more than 16,500 officers killed.
"In the United States, on average one law enforcement officer is killed every 53 hours," LaTorre said. "Every time an officer leaves his home, it's unknown whether he will return."
Instead of mourning the passing of so many, LaTorre urged the crowd to celebrate the efforts of those killed in the line of duty by recalling a quote from Abraham Lincoln.
"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count, but the life in your years."