Fallen Peace Officers’ Memorial
You see the headlines here in Colorado and across the nation.
Men and women ? heroes ? whose lives have been taken, but not forgotten. They?re peace officers, who chose to step squarely in harm?s way ? fully knowing what could happen, and sadly, does.
The story extends back for more than a century into the archives of Southern Colorado history. The faces and names are different, yet they are linked by a common bond.
1895. William Shea, a night marshal for the town of Victor. He?s the first known peace officer, killed in the line of duty in the Pikes Peak region. A train robber, seeking revenge on anyone responsible for his initial arrest, shot Marshall Shea.
1896. Constable Benjamin Bish, with the Colorado Springs Police Department. Bish was killed while investigating a suspected burglary. 1908. Albert Smith. 1918. John Rowan.
The list, goes on.
We know little about the families of these fallen officers, though. They are the ones who carry the loss the rest of their lives.
?God, he’d be a great grandfather,? says Sonja Fry, as she thumbs through stacks of pictures. ?I always called it his little Mona Lisa smile.? She laughs to herself, putting a caption on her husband?s old Colorado State Patrol picture.
Charles Fry was a devoted father and family man, says Sonja. Their marriage, the picture of perfection.
It was a life-long love that would spark over spilled coffee. Sonja a waitress, Charlie dining with others on the force.
?I was walking around them pouring coffee, and his sergeant stood up. And I burned him with coffee on the back, spilled coffee all over him. Charlie just went, good girl! ” Sonia smiles.
Before the group would leave, Charlie would ask her out. And then, in a made-for-movie romance, Charlie would ask Sonja to marry him five days after they met.
?There was just a chemistry, where we both knew!?
Charlie and Sonja Fry would have two kids, Jennifer and Jeff.
It was 1987, on a patrol shift, on I-25 near Monument Trooper Charlie Fry would be struck, and killed by a drunk driver, leaving behind wife Sonja, Jennifer who was 10, and Jeff who was 8.
Decades later the pain is as though it were yesterday.
?The grandkids will never know what a wonderful man he was,? Sonja says.
The Pikes Peak Region Peace Officers’ Memorial Project now stands all of the families whose losses cannot be equaled. As a component fund with the Pikes Peak Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, a permanent memorial will be constructed as a cornerstone in America the Beautiful Park. It can only be made possible with generous donations.
Visit http://www.peaceofficermemorial.com/PeaceOfficerMemorialHOME.htm for more information on donating. Monetary gifts can also be mailed to Pikes Peak Region Peace Officers’ Memorial, c/o Pikes Peak Community Foundation, 730 N. Nevada Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903.
