ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office paused Wednesday to pay tribute to officers who died in service to their community.
"To remind our community that this is a dangerous job and that there are sacrifices that are made, and we have to always remember that," said Sheriff David Shoar.
It's a sacrifice that Nina Solano is all too familiar with. Her husband, Deputy Joseph Solano, died in 1983 when a car hit his motorcycle.
"It's hard to deal with -- to lose him, especially when he was getting ready to retire," she said. "Our kids were home; we were going to do something and I lost him."
Solano and others touched by the loss of officers were comforted by kind words and shared memories.
Shoar said he is grateful that people who fully understand the risk are willing to protect their communities at any cost.
"We've had an tremendous up tick in assaults and killings of law enforcement in the last year or two, and it's troubling," Shoar said.
Officers killed in line of duty in St. Johns County:
| Deputy Abe Schneider Deputy Guy White Deputy P.A. Turlington Deputy Lamar Knight Deputy Frank Quigley Deputy Harold Hart Deeputy Beach Marshall Ron Parker Trooper Merle J. Cook Trooper Robert L. Pruitt Trooper Cleo L. Tomlinson Jr. Deputy Joseph Solano Deputy Joshua Blyler Deputy James L. Anderson | EOW March 5, 1911 EOW March 5, 1911 EOW November 4, 1927 EOW May 7, 1933 EOW May 7, 1933 EOW April 13, 1968 EOW January 12, 1975 EOW July 13, 1981 EOW July 13, 1981 EOW July 13, 1981 EOW February 12, 1983 EOW May 2, 2004 EOW January 14, 2010 |