By Ashley Silver
Police1 Staff
TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Police Department recently unveiled a memorial for fallen officer Jesse Madsen, who veered head-on into a car that was traveling on the wrong side of the road, saving other drivers in its path last year.
FOX 13 News shared photos of the metal lion sculpture at the District One headquarters in Tampa, made from Madsen’s mangled patrol car parts and guns reclaimed from the street.
“A lion was very much like how Jesse was, fierce and protective, but still family-oriented,” Tampa Police Major Eric Defelice told FOX 13. “So, it really embodied what Jesse meant to us.”
More than a year after the crash, mourners gathered to remember the 16-year police and U.S. Marine Corps veteran and his contributions, including Madsen’s daughter, Kenley, who wears her father’s dog tags around her neck.
“He was a hero who saved others,” she told FOX 13.
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