Former Prince George’s police Sgt. Richard Findley, who was struck and killed by a stolen vehicle last June, is among those being honored on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.
His name was one of those engraved on the memorial during a ceremony Tuesday in downtown Washington.
On June 27, 2008, Findley was trying to stop a stolen pickup truck in Laurel. When he left his patrol car to approach the vehicle, the 39-year-old was hit and dragged on the front of the truck, said his partner, Detective Ken Evans. Findley died of massive head trauma a short time later.
Findley was a 10-year veteran of the department and served on an elite unit that went after violent, repeat offenders.
Ronnie White, who was driving the vehicle that hit Findley, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The 19-year-old died in jail two days later.
Findley’s work went beyond pursuing Prince George’s most dangerous criminals.
He led the department’s Christmas in April program, helping remodel an elderly woman’s home and even buying her a new boiler himself.
He also volunteered at the Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department, where he met his wife of eight years, Kelly Findley. They have two daughters, Nicole, 10, and Lauren, 7.
“He treasured his girls and me,” Kelly Findley said Tuesday. “Everything he did was for us.”
Evans, who worked alongside Findley for seven years, said his ex-partner was like a brother to him.
“We did everything together, took vacations, went to football games,” Evans said. “It was odd to see one of us without the other.”
He said Findley’s death made it hard to go back to work.
“But the bottom line is I’m going to keep doing what I do,” Evans said. “It’s going to take more than that to stop me.”
Next month during National Police Week, the names of nearly 400 other fallen officers will join Findley’s on the memorial. More than 18,000 names of officers who died in the line of duty have been engraved on the memorial since its dedication in 1991.
