Tupelo, Oxford and Booneville to host memorials for fallen police officers next week

TUPELO – At least three Northeast Mississippi communities will host ceremonies as part of National Law Enforcement Memorial Week.

The Northeast Mississippi Law Enforcement Memorial Service, hosted by Wives of Warriors and C.O.P.S. (Concerns Of Police Survivors), will begin at 6 p.m. on Monday, May 12, outside the theater at the Elvis Presley Birthplace in Tupelo.

The memorial service was started more than a quarter-century ago by John Harmon after his son, Casey Harmon, was shot and killed while working as a jailer at the Lee County Juvenile Detention Center in March 1998.

Northeast Mississippi Community College Police Chief Jason Jackson will be the speaker at the event, which will include the playing of taps, the reading of the names of the area’s officers who have been killed in the line of duty and a candlelight vigil.

Thursday morning, the Lafayette County Law Enforcement Officers Association will host its annual ceremony on the courthouse lawn. Representatives from area agencies will report if any officers were killed or injured in the line of duty. Following the laying of a wreath at the Public Safety Memorial at the courthouse, the Oxford Police Department honor guard will give a 21-gun salute.

The Prentiss County Sheriff’s Office will hold their annual ceremony at the Prentiss County Justice Center at 6 p.m. Thursday. Recently appointed First Circuit District Attorney Jason Herring will be the guest speaker. The event will include the laying of a wreath on the memorial to the agency’s only officer lost in the line of duty, Michael Hisaw.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy established May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day. The week around that day is National Police Week.

There will be a pair of events in Jackson on Tuesday. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety will host their memorial service at 10 a.m. at their 1900 E. Woodrow Wilson Avenue headquarters. Lt. Col. Matt Lott will be the keynote speaker. Robin Whitfield will offer comments about the late Lee Tartt, an MBN agent who was killed during a February 2016 standoff.

The same day at 6:30 p.m., the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police and the Mississippi Sheriff’s Association will host their annual fallen officer candlelight vigil at the State Capitol Mall in downtown Jackson.

The national memorial will also be held Tuesday night at 7 p.m. with a candlelight vigil on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. That event, which will be livestreamed on social media by the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Fund, will include the reading of the names of fallen officers, including the 148 who died in 2024.