officer julie olson who had responded to back up north st paul officer then shot and killed the perpetrator ramsey county reserve officer michael wilbon was struck and killed while directing traffic on white bear avenue in may of respect for sergeant version on our public servant who made the ultimate sacrifice sergeant versions name was added to the national law enforcement officers from oriel wall in washington d c and also a memorial wall was by these events and where we're headed in the future welcome chief tamala thanks joe well how we doing chief it's it's been a tough couple years and i know you've done a tremendous job thank you it has been a horrible couple of years and and i never wanted my career to involve events like this but unfortunately it has as have all the other officers in mayport in north st paul everyone is doing remarkably well considering the circumstances and i think people are just trying to move on now never forgetting those officers that have in the past year and a half been killed but realizing that life does go on and and we will continue on with them in mind ok well you know let's let's go right to the tape but  see what troy accumulated in  him forty years ago my brother i deputy sheriff with the jacksonville sheriff's office was shot to death while responding to i just arbonne skull i remember that day as if it were yesterday like many of you or your loved ones hey died in the line of duty in the line of duty  rule whether an officer is killed one year ago or two centuries ago they will always be remembered and honored here at the national law enforcement officers memorial mothers and daughters brothers sisters friends and colleagues each surrogate cause greater than themselves by putting their dedication to duty above this morial bears an inscription that reads it is not how these officers died that made them heroes it is how they lived with their stories and examples to guide us let us carry on their work and let us fulfill the promise that they worked so hard to keep the promise of security opportunity and justice for all you can feel the unity throughout the area here and just in talking with different law enforcement across the nation that have come up here and their support that they have and that we have for each other it is really truly amazing august ninth two thousand and ten joseph anthony birger on may first two thousand and ten hope that one day when you see a squad car or an officer in uniform you will be able to remember your fallen officer and smile hope that one day you will be able to make a difference in the apathy and lack of appreciation and respect in our community for our law enforcement officers hope that laughter will once again echo through your sadness and with that an understanding that life k and will go on the one thing that never changes yes the hearts in the hearts of those in attendance because of the price that your loved one paid sadly we must add morning to the list of those who have fall knowing that the brave men and women in law enforcement willingly take on great risk as part of their job and that makes it no easier to read their names or recall their memories i thought it was  but unfortunately it was joe and you know joe has always been a friend and yes it's the least i could do now is to come out here in  the thing police we began in one thousand nine hundred sixty two following a proclamation back then during the kennedy administration and it was deemed at that time that the we containing may fifteenth would be known there after as law enforcement week or police week subsequently a memorial was built in washington d c and it's just a couple of blocks the capitol mall you saw the candlelight ceremony there that was held at the memorial the places where you saw pictures on the wall with the blue tape that was the law enforcement morial and then a subsequent sermon was held on the capitol lawn but the festivities or the events that week began on friday evening may thirteenth with that candlelight ceremony and the estimate that approximately thirty thousand people show up at that ceremony and it is very moving i had the honor and the privilege to be drugs escort officer for the week and my wife and i both traveled out to d c to be with her and to be with the department for for that week but the other events of that week in addition to the candlelight ceremony on friday evening on saturday officer dave long been was honored by the national emerald society is their officer of the year in regards to his interaction with the suspect in this case and and an honor very befitting of what he did followed on sunday about eleven am in the morning on the lawn of the capitol where they held the ceremony the fraternal order of police puts on every year where they again read the names of the officers who have lost their lives in that year one hundred fifty two officers lost their life in two thousand and ten and at the candlelight ceremony over three hundred names were read because over the course of history they determined that names were skipped and omitted and so at that candlelight ceremony it's the one and only time that the names are read sergeant bergeron's name was engraved in the wall this year and it was the one and only time his name will be read at the memorial and at that service then likewise he saw in the in the clip on the lawn of the capitol we had the ceremony where there was the large star up at the front of the crowd and each survivor went up and placed a red carnation in that star when it was all done the star had been filled out with red carnations and again the officers names were mentioned as the carnation was placed and the families were awarded medals by the fraternal order of police a couple of things that that's a pretty impressive memorial is that solid granite then i believe it's granite or marble that it's a wall approximately waist high that goes or own two sections of the memorial there's over nineteen thousand the names inscribed in that currently  and obviously they add more every year but that the items you saw taped and placed on the wall or below the names that people put in there for police week generally if you would go out there any other time of the year they be just solid white walls with the names inscribed and we had quite a good sized delegation go out there to who all participated are our total number is as far as i can tell we're eighty three people that traveled from maplewood or from minnesota to be part of that now i think the number was more because they kept running into people that i know weren't on the plane or the bus that we took to the airport so i think the number was influx there a little bit but there were at least eighty three people that included seventeen maplewood officers seven retired officers from april would there were officers from st paul north st paul ramsey county  a vigil clips and then twenty one family members from the birds around family also went so it was a it was a large group of men it was a group that i was glad to see that big that that went out there in how everything was out in d c was there any activities here in minnesota during police week is is not forgotten here in minnesota fortunately we don't have as many officers killed in line of duty as a lot of states absolutely but in minnesota here they do hold a neck communicable service this year it was held in fergus falls on may first that doesn't all always fall within police week but then on the fifteenth police memorial day at the law enforcement morial which is down on the water of the state capitol they do an honor guard that stands for twenty four hour period and during that ceremony as officers from around the state stand in honor they place reads and in honor of officers that have been killed that previous year or in subsequent years if families or departments choose to do so they can hold there every year and they do follow it up at the end of the honor guard on may fifteenth with another candlelight ceremony at the the at memorial there but it's  good to see law enforcement from across the state show their respect for those officers and and many of them date back to the days of horses and their names are read there every year and so every year the names of all the officers the bronze statue brody the studios were commissioned to create that staff someways it's been a long year in other ways it seems like it's really just flown by everyone went through a trip a tough period of time there and you know you've got to bounce back and tragedies like this bring people together and closer and that's exactly what  in the past year since his death it's become obvious that joel was a person that many of us placed on the wall become a lot of people told me that really kept him all the walls  the words maplewood police memorial i pray that this remains the bergeron memorial and there is never another meeting with officer ever added to this was a photograph that was taken on the day of so i know the memorial isn't done and we still have some some i think some topping to do along the wall and and the and that sure if the landscapers come in first or the electricians to put in the lighting but i know how you've been on top of that and so hopefully by fall i everything will be and said and done i have or the past few months become the general case a tractor for building a memorial and it  entails a lot more than i ever imagined when we talked about first building this memorial back shortly after may first last year i had just invision putting up a couple of chunks of granite and  setting a statue there i quickly found out with not a lot of time to spare that there is just a huge undertaking to make that construction possible so that there that is going to be a permanent  memorial how many yards of concrete did you and then we ended up with forty nine yards of concrete at that memorial and initially we had hoped that our public works crews could build the wall that the granite is affixed to and they came in and said we do sidewalks and we don't do walls and they suggested we get somebody else so i contacted macof construction and they were very very helpful and we were very grateful they made a huge donation to this over sixty three hundred pounds that's three hundred pounds or rebar three tons of rebar that's in that forty nine yards of concrete so it's incredible the amount of material and work that went into that far from what i had matter i know and we talked about it and i just thought wow you know this is i knew it was going to be expensive but i didn't realize how expensive and unfortunately the community i know the city did not put any money into this memorial it's not that we didn't want to buy know when we talked about it that we felt that it should be the employees and i know we fund the employee benefit program which includes vacation time and so in a sense it was money right out of the employee's pocket to to jumpstart this this venture and i believe you raised for over twenty thousand through the donations yes it was over twenty thousand then and those employees gave up their time off and strickly their vacation time so it wasn't any additional expense they just said take the money that you would normally pay me for that time off and donate to this cause so it was definitely the jumpstart that got this going and then let's kind of go over i know i think i don't think you final the everything out yet but kind of give us a just a rough guess of our rough tally of some of the major contributors and what kind of tallies up to be it's definitely a work in progress and  you had mentioned about landscaping and lighting and things and those still have to be done and in in those specific order but we know that the electrical has to get in the ground first we have to get sidewalks make it handicapped incorporate that but and then we've also lined up a donation from another entity that's going to do the landscaping there but like i said mcgough construction came in with still under came through with a donation probably in excess of six thousand dollars i know my office really aerials really stepped up absolutely there their donation i must a meeting was worth twenty thousand dollars to lease i saw those guys out there working and they they really worked they they were working very hard and they were or a well oiled machine murphy granite was the supplier of the granite that we purchased and they made comments on how well the h which is an engineering firm did the engineering of those four things that went into the ground into that they were they were the bearers of bad news and good news they provided the plans that said this thing isn't going to move and also said you need to get somebody on board to to build this rebar fab incorporated as you had mentioned sold us the rebar for that at cost  testing on the concrete so that we know that that's all within specifications and limits and we're we're just overwhelmed by the donations again there are there will be a landscaping donation that will come in in the future here so how much how much did i know we had the big event at the community center and the rough tally and how much that brought in you know i knew that the media would be asking me that the monday afterwards i know and here we are two months afterwards and we still don't have a real good handle on it we know we raised a lot of money and we we raised as much as i think the officers that put that fund raiser together wanted to but we still have some obligations out there that we have to cover there are some tax obligations that we have to take care of so we believe we raised about one hundred thousand dollars and the cost of the memorial you know when you and i first spoke way back at the beginning of the year and i told you what the statue would cost the price jumped quite a bit from there and we did have to raise quite a bit more money and we had a group of employees in the police department and retirees that came along and said we want to make this nice i had two plans on my desk i said this is the cadillac this is the rolls royce i said i'm shooting to do the cadillac they said no we want to do the rolls royce and they said we're going to raise the money to do this and they did and put on a huge event at the community center and and raise just an overwhelming amount of money been i just i don't know how you did it dave but you did a tremendous job and thank god you were there to do it because i don't think i could have done it thank you anyway thanks for spending this time with us today  happy and peaceful summer and enjoy yourself and have a good time so thanks for watching this edition of spotlight and we'll see