North Texans Among Names Added To Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Law enforcement officers from North Texas and across the country will be remembered tonight at a candlelight vigil in Washington D.C.
This is National Police Week and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial contains the names law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty.
Steven Groeninger is the senior director of communications for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and he says the number of names submitted each year is trending down. "We really want to see those numbers down. We really want to see each officer make it home at the end of his or her shift."
The memorial currently has the names of 19,000 officers, dating to 1791, inscribed on two curving marble walls. Groeninger said on Monday night, "We will formally dedicate 321 names of fallen officers who we added to the memorial's wall this year."
North Texans Joshua Stanley Williams with the Waxahachie Police Department and Bobby Eugene Pace with the Dallas County Sheriff's Office are among the names being added to the wall.
The list of officers from the Lone Star State also includes DPS Troopers Javier Arana and Paul Hernandez, Upton County Deputy Michael Smith and El Paso police officers Jonathan Molina and Angel Garcia.
For the second year in a row, firearms-related incidents exceeded traffic-related deaths as the leading cause of law enforcement fatalities.
