34th annual memorial service scheduled Tuesday to honor nine killed in line of duty
The community will pay tribute to those police officers who have fallen protecting their respective local citizens Tuesday, when the 34th annual St. Charles Parish Peace Officers Memorial Service will take place.
The ceremony will honor the nine Louisiana police officers who were killed in the line of duty in 2015.
Those officers are Assistant Chief Carl Borderlon(Ball Police Dept.), Deputy Rodney Cordall (Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office), Officer Juandre Gillian (Jeanerette Police Dept.), Patrolman James Bennett (New Orleans Police Dept.), Officer Daryle Holloway (New Orleans), Officer Vernell Brown (New Orleans), Officer Thomas LaValley (Shreveport Police Department) Senior Trooper Steven Vincent (Louisiana State Police) and Officer Henry Nelson (Sunset Police Dept.).
The ceremony will also honor the four St. Charles Parish police officers that have been killed in the line of duty,
Sheriff Lewis Ory, Deputy James Alan Arterbury, Deputy Nelson Coleman and Deputy Jeff G. Watson.
Families, friends and members of the community will gather to remember those loved ones on Tuesday.
The number of officers killed last year, nine, is a larger number than usual and a great reminder of the sacrifice each made and the risk each officer assumes each and every day, said St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Pat Yoes.
“These people showed up to work every day to serve and protect their community, and one day they never came home,” Yoes said. “They and their families paid the price. It’s our obligation to never forget the sacrifice they’ve made.”
The ceremony is hosted by the Sheriff’s Office and the St. Charles Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 15. Yoes said this year’s ceremony will be notable for another reason: the Fallen Heroes Memorial area is in the process of being upgraded and will be complete Tuesday with new statues, planters and plaques being installed as additions.
The memorial will be rededicated as well Tuesday in conjunction with the upgrades.
He added that the hope is for good weather and another strong crowd, Yoes noting that community support in past years has provided a boost to the police force on what is always a very emotional day.
“It will be a special day,” Yoes said.
The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. outside the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office Headquarters, located at 206 Judge Edward A. Dufresne Parkway in Luling.
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