{"id":29756,"date":"2025-05-08T08:29:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T12:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/?p=29756"},"modified":"2025-05-08T08:29:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T12:29:14","slug":"lieutenant-governor-miller-joins-maryland-state-police-to-honor-fallen-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/2025\/05\/08\/lieutenant-governor-miller-joins-maryland-state-police-to-honor-fallen-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Lieutenant Governor Miller Joins Maryland State Police to Honor Fallen Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(PIKESVILLE, MD) \u2013 Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller and Maryland State Police Superintendent Colonel Roland L. Butler, Jr. joined police survivor families yesterday to honor those who have given their lives in the line of duty at the annual Maryland State Police Fallen Heroes Ceremony at Headquarters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEach name we remember is a story\u2014a story of courage and commitment. They chose a life of service, and in doing so, they accepted risks most would never take &#8211; to protect others, and to preserve the peace of our communities,\u201d said Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller. \u201cWhile we are grateful that there are no new names added to the memorial this year, Fallen Heroes Day is an opportunity for us to show appreciation for those who risk their lives every day to protect us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will never forget those who gave their lives to protect and serve,\u201d said Maryland State Police Superintendent Colonel Roland L. Butler, Jr. \u201cThey were ordinary people who did extraordinary things. They were willing to risk their own safety to uphold the law and keep our communities safe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The ceremony honored the 43 state troopers who made the ultimate sacrifice serving in Maryland, two troopers killed while on active military duty in World War II and one fallen deputy state fire marshal.\u00a0In addition to the families of Fallen Heroes, current and retired state troopers, civilian personnel, and deputy state fire marshals attended the annual ceremony yesterday to honor their fellow troopers and deputy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0076-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-29757\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0076-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"760\" height=\"507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0076-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0076-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0076-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0076-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0076-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Maryland State Police Memorial Garden, a sacred location in the center of the quadrangle, is home to three monuments.\u00a0 The largest of the three monuments is a memorial built by the Maryland State Police Alumni Association and displays the members of the Department who lost their lives while serving the people of our state. The memorial was designed by the late Lt. John Sawa, just months before his son, Trooper First Class John Sawa, was struck and killed by an impaired driver on I-95 in Havre de Grace.<\/p>\n<p>Adjacent to the memorial is a monument dedicated to two Maryland State Troopers drafted into military service during World War II who lost their lives in Europe while serving our nation.\u00a0 There is also a monument dedicated to a chief deputy state fire marshal from the Office of the State Fire Marshal who lost his life while serving our state.<\/p>\n<p>These monuments proudly display the names of those individuals we hold in the highest regard.\u00a0 They are our Fallen Heroes. They lost their lives while serving others.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0096-1-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-29758\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0096-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"760\" height=\"507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0096-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0096-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0096-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0096-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/05\/DI1_0096-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Maryland Department of State Police pledge to these heroes that we will never forget them or their families and we will proudly uphold their tradition of service and sacrifice as Maryland\u2019s Finest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u00a0###<\/p>\n<p>CONTACT:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Office of Media Communications, msp.media@maryland.gov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(PIKESVILLE, MD) \u2013 Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller and Maryland State Police Superintendent Colonel Roland L. Butler, Jr. joined police survivor families yesterday to honor those who have given their lives in the line of duty at the annual Maryland State Police Fallen Heroes Ceremony at Headquarters. \u201cEach name we remember is a story\u2014a story of<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/2025\/05\/08\/lieutenant-governor-miller-joins-maryland-state-police-to-honor-fallen-heroes\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":260,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29759,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29756\/revisions\/29759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}