April 30, 2009
State Police To Honor 91 Fallen Troopers
HARRISBURG: (April 30, 2009) – Ninety-one Pennsylvania State Police troopers killed in the line of duty will be remembered at a memorial ceremony at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 3, at the State Police Academy in Hershey, Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski announced today.
The event is open to the public.
“This ceremony is an opportunity to pay tribute to all of our troopers who have laid down their lives rather than swerve from the path of duty,” Pawlowski said. “Their deaths remind us that our members serve in a dangerous profession.”
The first troopers killed in the line of duty were privates John F. Henry and Francis A. Zehringer, who died in a shootout with gangsters in Jefferson County in 1906. The most recent member to die in the line of duty was Cpl. Joseph R. Pokorny Jr., who was shot to death during a traffic stop in Allegheny County in December 2005.
Pawlowski said the program also serves to celebrate the 104th anniversary of the state police, which was created on May 2, 1905, by legislation signed by Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker.
Additional observances to mark the anniversary will be held May 2 at state police installations across the state.
SOURCE: Pennsylvania State Police
