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Members of the Tupelo Police Department’s Honor Guard stand at ease after delivering the 21-gun salute to end this year’s Northeast Mississippi Law Enforcement Memorial Service.
By William Moore
Daily Journal
TUPELO – The law enforcement community enjoys a sense of camaraderie, but the real brotherhood comes out when one of them falls.
The family of officers gathered at the Elvis Presley Birthplace Thursday evening to remember the 128 officers nationwide who died in the line of duty in 2015 at the 17th annual Northeast Mississippi Law Enforcement Memorial.
“Tonight we pay honor to those individuals who stand up for us, who stand in the line of danger – between good and evil,” said Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton. “It’s a debt we can never repay.”
The guest speaker was Adam Harmon, the older brother of Casey Harmon, a Lee County jailer who was shot and killed by a juvenile shoplifting suspect in 1998. Though his grandfather, father and all his brothers were in law enforcement, Harmon resisted.
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Memorial boards, honoring each fallen officer in Northeast Mississippi, lined the walls during the service.
“At first, I had no interest,” said Harmon, an 18-year veteran of the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Department. “I loved team sports – football in the fall and baseball in the spring.
“But Casey showed me the team aspect of law enforcement. He would come home from ride-alongs with the Tupelo Police Department excited and tell me all about it.”
He started going on ride-alongs with his father and as he warmed up to the idea, he became Chickasaw County’s first-ever reserve deputy. But his life was turned upside down on March 2, 1998, when he got a call and told him to get to Tupelo as quick as possible.
“It was a senseless act,” Harmon said. “(My brother’s killer) was picked up for shoplifting and they were only holding him until his parents arrived.
“But then the outpouring of compassion came from law enforcement around the regions and the state. It was them that I saw the real brotherhood. It was then that I took a full-time job to be part of that brotherhood.”
Organizer Cpl. Rob Edwards of the Tupelo Police Department chose the location of this year’s event to remember Elvis Presley’s lifelong appreciation of law enforcement. Two of Presley’s cousins, brothers Harold Ray Presley and Larry Presley, even served as Lee County Sheriff. Harold Ray Presley was shot and killed in the line of duty in July 2001.
william.moore@journalinc.com
