Community to salute our fallen lawmen

John Oxford

May 12, 2009 10:48 pm

— MOULTRIE — The fifth annual Community Law Enforcement Memorial Service will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, May 14, on the courthouse square.
Moultrie Police Cpl. Dave Underwood said the service is being held as part of National Police Week, and it is being held on National Police Officer Memorial Day. There will be remembrances of five Colquitt County officers killed in the line of duty as well as the 46 officers killed nationwide in 2009 and seven officers killed in Georgia since May 2008.
Among those being remembered are Officer Frederick “Freddie” Norman of the Cobb County Police Department, Underwood said. He died Feb. 14 of injuries he sustained when his patrol car was hit April 17, 1988, leaving him paralyzed. Also being remembered is Officer Terry Adams of the Tifton Police Department, who was killed April 22 when his motorcycle collided with a pickup truck on Tift Avenue.
The five officers killed in the line of duty from Colquitt County are:
• Doerun police officer Lawrence M. O’Neal was shot and killed April 7, 1959;
• Moultrie police officer Roy Edward James, 36, was shot and killed Aug. 13, 1960;
• Georgia Department of Revenue Agent Daniel J. Hancock, 52, was killed in a car accident in Dougherty County May 17, 1962. Hancock was a Moultrie resident at the time of the accident;
• Moultrie police Lt. Thomas Jackson Meredith, 61, was shot and killed Aug. 25, 1973, and;
• Colquitt County sheriff’s deputy Tony Reed Wilder, 43, was shot and killed Jan. 31, 1986.
In addition to the remembrances, Underwood said Sandra Ghelarducci, daughter of Meredith, will be a special guest at the service. The honor guard from the Moultrie Police Department will give a 21- gun salute while the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office Honor Guard will present the flags. Members of the Valdosta Fire Department’s Pipe and Drum Corps will play a musical tribute for the fallen officers.
The first recorded police death happened in 1792, and Underwood said over 18,200 officers have been killed in the line of duty since then. As a special tribute to the fallen officers from here, he encourages people to leave flowers at the officer’s memorial, located on the courthouse square.