MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- On Wednesday, the Mishawaka Police Department held their annual Memorial Ceremony, remembering Officers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their community.
Mishawaka Police Department recognized five Mishawaka officers: Clarence Casper, Bryan S. Verkler, Thomas Roberts, James J. Szuba, and K9 Ricky.
"It's a time that we can all get together to remember not only our fallen officers, but the job that we all swear an oath to do, that it's a difficult job to do at times, and there is inherent danger with it, but we all understand that going in and the goal of serving and protecting our community is the ultimate goal of ours." stated Police Chief Alex Arendt
"It's very, very somber moment. This whole, this whole week is Police Week, so it's very somber knowing like, why we're here. Unfortunately, we are here because there have been many fallen officers throughout the country. We're honoring the Fallen Clarence Casper, Brian Burke, Thomas Roberts, James shuba and canine Rickey, officers that have gone before us." said Andrew Bauer, Mishawaka FOP Lodge 91 President
In addition to honoring these officers, the also revealed a new statue at the center of the memorial. About the creation of the statue, Chief Arendt told us "At the end of 2022 we put in this new memorial, and we knew that we wanted to have an accent piece to bring it all together. And the idea was put together by former Chief Witkowski and our local artist David Layman and Mayor Wood."
Mayor Wood added "And we came up with a concept of a badge with an eagle on top of it. And I guess the concept of that came from a photo that we had of a hawk that was on top of one of the monuments here."
"The eagle just represents courage and vigilance, and this eagle is a solemn oversight of what we're trying to do in serving our community and reflecting on those that came before us." said Chief Arendt
"And so, we put it right smack dab in the middle of our campus here to signify that public safety is the center of our community," said Mayor Wood, "it's our priority number one."