By Brett Zongker, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - When Kristine Rife visited the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial with her husband she never thought she would return to add his name to the wall.
“It’s a thankless job,” Rife said of police work. Her husband, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Clifton Rife II, died June 2. He was off duty in Oxon Hill, Md., when a 16-year-old tried to rob him. Rife announced he was an officer and drew his weapon. Shots were fired and both men were killed.
“You just never think it’s actually going to happen,” Rife said after laying a red rose at the center medallion of the memorial.
Fellow survivors and police from Maryland, the district and federal agencies gathered Friday to add 11 names to the memorial. The circular memorial with fountains and statues of lions was dedicated in 1991 and now holds the names of more than 16,500 officers who have been killed in the line of duty since 1792.
“This memorial is a most vital piece of the mosaic that makes up our nation’s capital,” D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said as a cold rain started to fall at the downtown site.
Ramsey said the memorial honors heroes who sacrificed their lives, and it stands among the monuments to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.
The D.C. officers died in the past year within days of each other. Sgt. John S. Ashley died of a heart attack on May 30 while assisting a Georgetown resident trying to catch a dog.
Ramsey said Ashley and Rife were good officers who won’t be forgotten, thanks in part to the memorial.
“I’ve got a lot of friends here, and it hurts,” Ramsey said.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Clark attended the ceremony to honor Officer Brian D. Winder, who was fatally shot in July when he approached two men in response to a 911 call. Officers from the Prince George’s County Police, Maryland State Police, and Maryland Transportation Authority Police were also remembered, along with federal agents who were serving across the country and one in Iraq.
Martha Wood, the widow of Baltimore police helicopter pilot Barry Wood, who died in 1998, said she returns to the memorial because she wants to help other survivors. She also said she wants to show the full story of police work and is looking forward to the opening of a museum near the memorial in 2009.
“This is real life,” she said. “This is not TV.”