A place to honor the fallen officers in the Pikes Peak region was unveiled on Tuesday in Memorial Park.
A project 13 years in the making, meant to serve as a tribute to 32 officers that have lost their lives in the line of duty across our region.
This includes the most recent addition to the list, Deputy Micah Flick of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
"This is such a beautiful tribute for what they’ve done for us," Rachael Flick, the widow of Deputy Micah Flick said.
It’s been three and a half months since Deputy Flick was shot and killed in the line of duty.
"It’s the very most recent, the last name that’s on here for now and I pray that there are no more names for a very long time but it kind of strikes me of the freshness of it," she said.
His wife, Rachael, sat in the crowd of other families that have lost an officer as a new fallen peace officers’ memorial was unveiled.
"I pray that the community comes and sees that and takes this honor and puts it into the living men and women who continue to hold the line," she said.
"They are from here, they lived here, they defended here, they believed in here and they are here," Commander David Edmondson of the Colorado Springs Police Department said.
It’s been 13 years in the making, partly because it took $1.6 million of community donations to build.
"It’s $1.6 million that needed to be raised and it’s very hard for law enforcement to ask for money, you know you can’t do that, so we actually had to spend some time developing own own 501c3," Edmondson said.
"It has just taken a long time to get the organization together, to get the community awareness together and to get the pieces together to actually fulfill the vision of this project," Sheriff Bill Elder of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputy Scott Stone, who was injured in the same shooting that took Deputy Flick’s life, came to honor his brothers in blue.
"Seeing this memorial brought back a lot of those memories and feelings and everything, and it brings me joy to know that this memorial actual honors his life and not just his death," Deputy Stone said.
And while seeing his name on the wall with more than 30 others is difficult, it’s something also moving him forward.
"To me, it means the world, it means that our community backs us, it means that our community supports us 100 percent," he said.
The memorial surrounded symbolicly, by a thin blue line.
A memorial service will be held here on Friday morning at 10 a.m. to honor all 32 of the fallen officers lost in the Pikes Peak region since 1895.
