call you to somewhere you are in an active shooting in progress we had an officer down I need a helium sound EMS you're repeating will become active shooting happy right now right back up their lives will forever be changed but they have the support of a community and we will stand by them this is my first year participating in the unity tour I've been a police officer for 24 and a half years and have been fortunate I've never had a serious injury or anything like that work related so the opportunity at this point in my career at this stage in my career to do something for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice is a pretty neat idea at this point telling them to train hard is a little late you know so it's to dig deep and remember why you came who you came for and when you're having a hard day getting up the hill just look around for one of the survivors and think you know their days just a little bit harder than yours to keep going good morning thank you all for coming out obviously I believe everybody who's here had to come out that's wearing blue and white so you guys had to be here or you have a long way to DC first of all give yourselves a round of applause for just getting here great job you have a contingent of a hundred and forty five riders who are all riding for the memory of slain police officers they're riding from Portsmouth Virginia today on the first leg of a trip that will take them to Washington DC and their final destination is the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial I'd also like to mention that we've had two more go down overnight officer Benjamin deeded an officer liquori Tate of the heavy police department got killed last night on traffic stock I'd like to have a moment of silence for them please so for 2014 there are 117 in the line of duty deaths across the United States and that includes tribal federal local municipal sheriff's etc across the United States from the Mesa Police Department sergeant Brandon Mendoza was killed last year on his way home from work he was hit by a DUI driver hit head-on on a freeway unfortunately they're in Arizona and so for the other 13 hundred men and women in the basic police department I'll pedal a few miles for all of them and honor Brandon today I'm actually writing for two people the two cities that bordered the city where I work each lost an officer last year while I was working Robert German with the Windermere Police Department it's a very small agency and deputy Scott pine with the Orange County Sheriff's Office which is a major agency both were shot and killed within about four months of each other what the police unity tour does in the funds that it raises for us it helps to do a number of things it helps to sponsor the officer of the month program which helps honor living officers and their heroic deeds it also helps to raise funds to keep the memorial going so it actually just raised a large portion of money to clean the memorial and help seal the engraving of the name so that they'll last forever I'm riding for my baby brother I remember when the individual who was named as it was a chief investigator for Boston PD his name is al Suarez I don't remember when he was shot and killed and his wife it was a dispatcher and she was actually working at the time that he was he was killed and it was a very it was very tough tough to lose anybody so I contacted his wife and I let her know that I was gonna be wearing his bracelet the entire ride and I was going to carry it in to Washington I'm writing from my baby brother um he he was killed in November Leon County Sheriff's Department the interesting thing was I'm one of we're one of nine kids my oldest brother passed away a few years ago we were actually driving up that day to the Boston College Florida State football game when we got the call so the first thing that went through my mind as my wife took the call was now I could tell something that really happened that was it was bad and really it was who who was it I could devil it with somebody obviously my family and I just didn't know who it was and it was just until we could get off the interstate it was which you know who who could it be that's what I was thinking it was and then it turned out to be Chris I think about him all the time all of all the support the people just in their cars honking everything that happens reminds me at some point of it minutes it's been a rough week but it's good though and in a good way rock the biggest thing that we want is we don't want Brian to be forgotten just like we don't want any fallen officer to be forgotten as a marine I didn't want any of the Marines that I was with me forgotten so we always carry their memory around and when we lost our son we just want everybody remember him and the effect he had on everybody else in the world around it I was told the candlelight vigil is is really really moving so that I would think that would be the one that would be hard to get through but my family's gonna meet me up there so that's good it's it's very hard to describe it's been so incredible it's just what everybody said it would be and then more it's it's amazing i actually teared up coming up the last hill and getting in here I made it through and I realized that some people they don't they don't make it home my husband he's pretty fantastic it's an honor none of us want but we know hearing miss him the last person was rough crying most of the time just ain't on the bike and holding it together was was not fun not easy but you have to keep rolling you can't stop like I said it's not an or anybody wants but he's a hero he worked 25 years of unfortunate what he loved my wife he loved his kids me love me love to stop anything he loved his brothers and sisters he was a good well I say good man but he was a boy to me he was only 25 years old just got married have a little girl little granddaughter she's 11 now and um he's been very missed and like I said I'm going through a rough time right now I'm losing my husband as dementia Alzheimer's right now so but I'm trying to get back and do and I'm trying to be strong yeah I have bad days I have good days but like i said i want to be honoring him he's sacrificing gaida so i'm sacrificing giving it all to i'm officer michael von stein with the Tallahassee Police Department I'm here representing officer James Murray see with the oak forest police department in nola noise he was end of watch was March seventeenth 2014 he was killed in the line of duty while responding to assist another officer in a car crash he was a trooper with South Carolina Highway Patrol the first year that I did the police unity tour was in 2010 the right after he was killed we came here for the National Police week and my first experience ever coming to Washington DC was actually riding into the sea on my bike it is such an amazing experience every year I you pedal all these miles and you get tired sometimes you sit there at least I do wondering why did I say I would do this again another year and as soon as you get into the city or you pass by a small town where people are there to honor you for riding for your for your office or a loved one it just makes it all worth it I'm looking forward to seeing more of the stuff that's going on up here it's like I said it's a great honor you know up here with my family and I'm really enjoying being a bad i have my kids up here and this is I think this is good this is going to be good for them I remember my first funeral is a funeral commander riding in the lead car going to the cemetery I saw convicted felons who I had personally put in jail standing on the side of the road hand over their heart or selenium there's a little bit different day mind you 30 years ago but all in all that same philosophy takes place so the community helps us here we help each other they can expect a very honoring ceremony with the officers yeah it is just amazing experience just to be able to hear your officers name called it's the only time that they'll hear it the year that they are officers of their officers in to watch state they get to hear their their name called and know that their name has been added to a while that unfortunately is a memorial that is constantly adding to it I'm you Miller was my honor to ride for Ohio State High patrolman Michael Paris his end of watch was August first 2012 he died as a result of the traffic stop encounter on duty and this year was my honor to ride for him and to meet his wife Jean it's just an amazing experience you come here you meet new survivors old survivors you know friends that we've made over the years that we've come is priceless you know and it's such a great you know opportunity and an honor I feel just to be asked to come over and you know you just welcomed and it's just it's just like coming home to family it really is we say the only thing that divides us is right at the pond which is just a bit of gold didn't buy the knowledge that America's thin blue line on these memorial walls we span shoulder tissue from the state of Florida Chelsea Renee richard john Yeomans mark Hayden Larson Christopher lynn smith you you so every time I'm struggling it's nothing compared to what the people were writing for have have done the last book that's affected that we sometimes don't appreciate is the community that they served because it's a tear in the fabric some of the other survivors we kind of think of it as this is really like nothing compared to the heartache that we had before so it is hilly but to us it's kind of kind of like symbolic or for our lives I guess it's not just hard sometimes it's easy but you just keep pedaling and you just persevere and eventually you get through it it's really I'm here nice a week selim III but i'd rather be so hurt definitely the survivors keep me coming back every year we have some returning survivors and of course new survivors and the interaction i get with them during the year and when we're up here just keeps reinforcing the reason why this full organization started i just think this is a fantastic event i plan to write in it as often as i can in the future usually sundays pretty quiet in urbana and he always wanted to be a police officer awesome so he always did he did what he wanted to do