MEMORIAL
A few weeks into the job, DiSario was shot and killed while responding to a call of a gunman with hostages.
The killer then forced his way into a nearby nursing home, where he killed a former girlfriend and another woman before killing himself.
“Chief DiSario did what he was called to do, and that was to preserve and protect,” said state Attorney General Mike DeWine, one of the featured speakers during Thursday’s Peace Officers Memorial that honored DiSario and others who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
The annual event focuses on officers who died during the previous calendar year, although Thursday’s ceremony included a moment of silence for Eric Joering and Anthony Morelli, the two Westerville officers who were killed while responding to a domestic dispute in February. They and their families will be formally honored during next year’s memorial.
DiSario and three other officers died in the line of duty in 2017.
• Cleveland Police Officer David Fahey Jr., 39, was killed by a hit-and-run driver in January 2017 as he was working at a crash scene.
• Lancaster Patrolman Marvin Scott Moyer, 66, died in May 2017 from complications of a blood-borne disease he contracted almost 20 years earlier while on the job.
• Girard Police Officer Justin Leo, 31, was shot and killed in October while responding to a domestic disturbance. ABOVE: Appreciation for the fallen officers was shown in many ways Thursday. LEFT: Family members of fallen officers make etchings of their names on a memorial at the training academy in London.
Five others who died in decades past also were honored, including Franklin County Deputy Sheriff Samuel Mautz, 25, who was shot to death during a robbery in 1921. Two police dogs also were honored.
The officers’ names have been added to a memorial at the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.
Thursday’s event was preceded by a procession of police cars and emergency
vehicles that made the 27-mile trip to London from Columbus.
More than 840 Ohio officers have been killed in the line of duty, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page website (online at odmp.org).
“Peace officers never know precisely what risks they’ll encounter, but they know there will be risks,” DeWine said. “It could involve an ambush, an accident, a suspect with a gun, a grudge. It could rise from a terrible injury suffered from an impaired driver or from countless other hazards that come up during the course of protecting the public.
“We cannot repay these officers. But we do our best to honor their commitment to public service, to honor them, to honor their family.”
Stanforth urged that DiSario and others be remembered not for the tragic circumstances of their deaths but for the legacies they left.
“There must be more than just remembering the last day,” he said. “Reach out to the families, (and) coworkers, and find out what made the person you may only know by the etching on this granite wall. ... Make good win over evil.”