FALLEN POLICEMEN HONORED; EFFORT TO ASSIST FAMILIES OF OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY

A motel-room shootout in February triggered Bob Neff's efforts to set up an organization to assist families of local law enforcement officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty.

The organization is in the development stages, said Neff, who announced the effort Friday at a 10 a.m. ceremony at Cape Girardeau County North Park honoring officers who have been killed in the line of duty in Southeast Missouri.

Cape Girardeau police officers Brad Moore and Keith May were seriously injured in the Feb. 10 shootout at the Super 8 Motel, 2011 N. Kingshighway, as they searched a motel room for drugs. The suspect, Matthew Marsh, died in the shootout.

Neff, a Cape Girardeau auto dealer, said the incident prompted him and other business leaders to look into starting an organization like Backstoppers, a St. Louis group that pays off mortgages and other debts for families of police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty. The St. Louis group even provides college funds for the children of those families.

The Backstoppers group, which has operated in St. Louis since 1959, has agreed to assist Neff's group establish a local organization.

Backstoppers' funding comes from membership dues and its annual "Guns and Hoses" boxing matches between police officers and firefighters, Neff said. The group has 1,400 members who pay $150 a year in membership dues.

Neff believes a similar membership drive could be successful here.

"The bottom line is, this is one of those organizations we hope is never needed," Neff said. "But reality and a sense of doing the right thing dictates that we as a community are ready in the event that it is needed."

Cape Girardeau police chief Rick Hetzel said he and about 15 to 20 community leaders in Cape Girardeau County are working to set up a not-for-profit corporation. "We feel we will have a tremendous amount of support from the community," he said.

Hetzel said no timetable has been set for getting the corporation up and running.

While Neff talked of the future at Friday's ceremony, area law enforcement officers, as part of Law Enforcement Memorial Day, remembered officers who died in the line of duty.

More than two dozen law enforcement officers and families of several of the deceased officers attended the ceremony under overcast skies. A group called SALT, Seniors and Lawmen Together, initiated the annual event four years ago.

"I'm filled with agony when we lose police officers," said Jackson police chief Marvin Sides.

Names to go on plaque

Officers placed 15 white roses on the stone and brass marker near the flag memorial to recognize the 10 names on the plaque and the five that will be added.

The five include state troopers Randy Sullivan, David May and Robert Guilliams. Sullivan died on Feb. 17, 1996, when his patrol car crashed while he was pursuing a motorist in Madison County. May died in a highway patrol helicopter crash on May 17, 1999, in Poplar Bluff. Guilliams died on Feb. 16, 2001, when his squad car crashed on Interstate 55 in Pemiscot County as he was responding to a traffic accident.

The others to be added to the marker are William Sprinkle, a Dexter city marshal who died on Feb. 29, 1892, and Gordon Galemore, a Mississippi County deputy sheriff who was killed by a juvenile suspect on Feb. 28, 1979.

The Cape Girardeau Regional Fraternal Order of Police dedicated the marker on May 10, 1996. It was intended to honor slain officers in a four-county area of Southeast Missouri, including those that grew up in this area but died elsewhere.

Law enforcement officers say there is no similar monument to police officers anywhere else in Southeast Missouri. Because of that, the Fraternal Order of Police plans to expand the marker to include the names of slain officers from 13 counties in Southeast Missouri.