By Kristin Davis
Virginian-Pilot
GREENBRIER, Va. — Two hundred law enforcement officers plan to pedal out of Chesapeake in memory of fallen polices officers this morning. They will travel 250 miles over three days, ending at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington on Tuesday.
The bicycle trek - the ninth annual - is part of the Police Unity Tour of Virginia Inc. that coincides with National Police Week.
South Hampton Roads lost two police officers in 2008 - Chesapeake Detective Jarrod Shivers and Virginia Beach Detective Michael Phillips. Both were investigating suspected marijuana dealers.
On Jan. 17, Shivers and a dozen other officers were at the Portlock home of Ryan Frederick, attempting to execute a drug search warrant. Frederick fired through the door at what he maintains he thought were intruders, striking the 34-year-old husband, father and decorated narcotics detective.
Frederick was charged with capital murder, but a jury in February found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter and recommended the maximum 10-year sentence. A judge on Friday upheld that sentence.
Working undercover nearly seven months later, Phillips attempted to buy a half-pound of marijuana from a suspected dealer in a Virginia Beach shopping center. A man walked up to his pickup and opened fire, killing Phillips, who left behind a wife and two young children.
Two men, Ted Vincent Carter and Marshall Moyd, are charged in the death.
A billboard featuring side-by-side photographs of the two slain officers - Phillips in uniform and Shivers in a suit - has gone up on Military Highway near the I-464 entrance in honor of National Police Week and the unity tour.
The tour raises money for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which built the police monument in Washington and lobbies for laws they say generate awareness for police who die in the line of duty, according to its Web site.
The tour’s send-off begins with a 7 a.m. ceremony at the Chesapeake Conference Center at 900 Greenbrier Circle. Riders will depart for Washington following the ceremony.
Copyright 2009 Virginian-Pilot