Each of the four arrests, four convictions and four life sentences stretched out Joan Prothero?s mourning process for her son.
Bruce Prothero, a 12-year veteran of the Baltimore County Police Department, was shot to death six years ago as he chased four robbers out of a jewelry store.
His mother sat Friday at the Baltimore County Police Department?s Memorial Service in Towson, alongside state and local officials, scores of police officers in formal navy blazers, and dozens of family members, honoring the officers who died on duty.
“Until he was killed, I really wasn?t connected with the police that much, but they have been incredibly supportive of us,” Prothero said. “They sort of take you into their family.”
Now, Prothero said, she is that family, supporting the “new” mothers, fathers, children and wives ? the ones like Laura Hamer, whose husband Russell died this year.
“The price of our security was their lives,” said Baltimore County Executive James Smith, who spoke at the ceremony.
“We are truly grateful. They are truly heroes.”
Onlookers gathered on the steps of the Circuit Court building as morning sessions let out and watched the speeches, the a capella singing, the bagpiper playing “Amazing Grace” in the courtyard.
A line of officers in formal attire stood behind seven wreaths, with blue and yellow flowers, representing the men in the department who?ve been killed in the line of duty.
Smith and Hamer were two of the attendees who lined the wreaths in front of the gray police memorial, which sits at the top of a grassy mound.
Prothero and others say they hope there will be enough money by next year to cut a lighted path through the grass and up to the memorial so people can touch it, like the Vietnam Memorial in Washington.
The sea of navy blazers Friday was nothing compared to an officer?s funeral service, which is “packed in blue,” said Nancy Ginsberg, a member of the department?s Chaplain Corps.
“They don?t forget,” she said of the officers. “Trust me, they don?t forget.”
