Law enforcement memorial event set for Friday morning
Published 5:50 pm Monday, May 13, 2019
MOULTRIE, Ga. — There will be a fresh wound for police this week when they gather — in Moultrie and across the state and nation — to recognize officers who died in the line of duty.
Savannah Police Department Sgt. Kelvin Ansari died Saturday after he and other officers confronted a robbery suspect.
The annual ceremony in Moultrie will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Colquitt County Courthouse amphitheater near the granite memorial honoring local officers who died while on the job.
In Washington, D.C., the names of 371 fallen officers are being added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Of those, 158 were killed while on duty in 2018. The others are officers whose deaths occurred long ago and have been brought to light recently.
Among those officers was a Moultrie Police Department officer who died on Aug. 23, 1934 and whose name was engraved last year on the stone at the courthouse in Colquitt County.
Motorcycle officer Julian Palmer, a Mitchell County native, was killed when a driver pulled into his path while he was pursuing two drivers who were racing near Main Street. When Palmer was thrown from his motorcycle his service weapon discharged.
“His pistol fell from the holster, discharged and the bullet struck him in the back just above one of his hips,” according to a Moultrie Observer account of the accident.
He died nearly a day later in a Tallahassee hospital.
Palmer’s name joined those of Doerun Police Department Officer Lawrence O’Neal, Moultrie Police Department Officer Roy James, Georgia Department of Revenue Agent Daniel Hancock, Lt. Tommy Meredith of the Moultrie Police Department and Colquitt County Deputy Tony Wilder.
The speaker at the Friday ceremony in Moultrie will be Alex Maddox, widow of slain Locust Grove Officer Chase Maddox.
According to media reports from the time, Officer Maddox responded Feb. 9, 2018, to back up two Henry County Sheriff’s Office deputies who were serving a warrant on a suspect who failed to appear in court. The suspect opened fire, killing Maddox and injuring the two deputies.
