Four Phila. Officers Killed in 2008 Honored During Special Engraving Ceremony

The names of four Philadelphia Police officers killed in the line of duty in 2008 were engraved Wednesday on the marble walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC. Sergeants Stephen Liczbinski and Patrick McDonald were shot and killed by armed criminals, and Sergeant Timothy Simpson and Officer Isabel Nazario died in violent traffic crashes.

The four deaths were the most suffered by any U.S. law enforcement agency last year."2008 was a tragic and heartbreaking year for the Philadelphia Police Department," said Craig W. Floyd, chairman and CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which maintains the nation's monument to fallen officers. "By inscribing their names on this national Memorial, we ensure these heroes will never be alone, they will never be forgotten."

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey led a delegation of family members, loved ones and police officials from Philadelphia to witness the engraving of the four names on panels 3 and 4 of the east wall of the Memorial, located in Judiciary Square in downtown Washington, DC.

Dedicated in 1991, the Memorial now honors 18,661 law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty throughout U.S. history. Since its first line-of-duty death in 1828, the Philadelphia Police Department has lost 251 officers, the third highest total among municipal police agencies in the country, behind only the departments in New York City and Chicago.

Philadelphia media covers the event:
Philly.com, article: "In D.C., remembering 4 fallen Phila. officers"
CBS3, video: "Slain Philly Officers Honored at National Memorial"
WPVI-TV ABC, article: "Fallen Philadelphia Officers Remembered"