CLEVELAND — Dozens gathered Monday evening for the annual Police Week candlelight vigil in Downtown Cleveland, honoring those who died in the line of duty serving communities across Northeast Ohio.
For Julia Sherry Ruane, it’s an annual tradition she wishes she'd never been a part of.
“This July will be 46 years,” said Sherry Ruane, remembering the day her brother, Cleveland Patrolman Desmond Sherry, was shot and killed when he stopped on his way home from his shift to help stop what he thought was the robbery of an elderly man.
“What he didn’t know was there was a lookout guy and when he stepped from his car, at that hour of the morning they knew it had to be a police officer so they shot him as he stepped out of his car,” said Sherry Ruane.
Her brother’s name was one of 198 names read during the vigil.
Each represented the name of a law enforcement officer who died serving one of the 54 departments represented.
“It matters, it matters that these men and women are remembered,” said Meg Ehlinger, whose son is a Cleveland Heights police officer.
She said a feeling of grief comes over her when she reads the names engraved on the black granite walls of the Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial.
“Because there’s families,” said Ehlinger. “There’s a mom behind each one of these names. There’s a dad and brothers and sisters and friends and neighbors. A death of an officer is just a ripple effect.”
One still felt decades later by Sherry Ruane.
“For us, the passage of time always carries with it the fear that people are going to forget,” she said. “It just makes you feel good that his memory and the memory of all these other guys are going to stay alive because people care enough to come out.”
