Remembered and Honored

Downtown parade, concert to honor fallen police officers
Donna J. Miller: Plain Dealer Reporter

In the line of duty, death can strike in many ways.

Gates Mills police Lt. Earl Thomas died at age 55 after battling a Cleveland blizzard that swallowed his police car.

Fairview Park Police Chief Henry Walton was 52 when he died of a heart attack while keeping bystanders away from a burning building.

Much younger men in uniform were killed in the Iraq war while serving with a Marine reserve unit based in Brook Park.

All will be remembered, honored, celebrated and wept for during the Peace Officers Memorial Parade on Friday, followed by a concert Saturday at the State Theatre that will feature five pipe-and-drum bands from the United States and Canada, Irish dancers and the U.S. Marine Corps Quantico Band.

The pipes and drums will accompany a slide show of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment. The 25th Marines have lost 48 comrades in the last 14 months in Iraq.

More than 80 fellow Marines will attend the slide show.

There will be lighter moments as well, with the Police Pipes & Drums of Bergen County, N.J., belting out pop songs.

The parade Friday is expected to draw 1,000 officers. It steps off from Lakeside Avenue and East 12th Street at 10:30 a.m. and marches west on Lakeside to West Third Street. There, a service will honor the 166 fallen police officers named on the Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial.

"It's most important for the families," Fairview Park Patrolman Paul Shepard said. He researched Walton's death and had the chief's name added to the national police memorial in Washington, D.C. Read more.