The Los Angeles Police Department will hold a memorial ceremony Thursday honoring the legacies of the 239 LAPD officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
Mayor Karen Bass and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell are among the dignitaries expected to attend the event in the courtyard , along with other local elected officials members of the Los Angeles Police Commission, department officials and along with family members of the fallen officers.
The memorial ceremony will feature traditional police honors, including a “roll call” of the fallen officers, a riderless horse, a rifle volley, a “missing man” formation helicopter flyover, a bagpiper playing “Amazing Grace” and a solo bugler performing “Taps,” along with an “End of Watch” broadcast.
The ceremony will also include the inaugural performance of a volunteer LAPD choir composed of both sworn officers and civilian employees.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, family members and former partners of the fallen officers place long-stemmed roses near the officers’ nameplate on the department’s Memorial Wall.
The LAPD ceremony on Thursday will come on the heels of a similar event Wednesday night held by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, memorializing the deaths of three law enforcement officers. The Los Angeles County Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony will honor the memories of:
— sheriff’s Deputy Alfredo M. Flores, who was fatally injured when a fire erupted in a mobile shooting range trailer at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic in October 2023 and died six months later;
— El Monte Police Department Officer Terry DeWitt Long, who was left paralyzed when he was shot by a suspect on June 18, 1970, and died due to complications of his injuries on Aug. 22, 2004; and
— Department of Corrections Officer Raymond L. Messer, who was fatally stabbed by an inmate at a Lancaster prison on Aug. 11, 1951.