Police officers stand next to a growing memorial of flowers and balloons in front of the Dallas Police department headquarters on July 13, 2016 in Dallas, Texas.
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Dallas Police Funeral. Credit: Boston Globe.
Obama, on Tuesday, led the memorial service to pay tribute to the five police officers with a speech stressing that Americans “are not as divided as we seem” and that the police deserves “respect”.
A funeral service for Thompson, a newlywed, was held Wednesday afternoon in Corsicana, south of Dallas.
About a dozen members of the HCSO Honor Guard are heading to the Metroplex Thursday morning, to perform their important, but somber duty of honoring fallen officers.
The five officers were killed by a former US Army Reserve soldier who told police that he was angry about police killings of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota earlier that week and wanted to “kill white people”, especially police. The shooter, Micah Xavier Johnson, threatened to kill more police officers with explosives, and law enforcement found bomb-making material in his home.
Smith joined Dallas police in 1989. A public service is scheduled Thursday for Smith at a Dallas church where he worked security.
During the funeral service at the cavernous Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, fellow officer Debbie Taylor described Ahrens, 48, as a “gentle giant” who “strived to be the best, most knowledgeable officer”.
In the City of Hornell, there is a planned memorial service for the slain officers.
Boston police and Massachusetts State Police are not formally sending representatives to Dallas, but officials at both agencies said they expected dozens of officers and troopers to travel on their own time and at their own expense to attend the services. He was married, and his wife Emily is also a police officer.
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The funerals came a day after President Barack Obama praised the slain officers’ heroism, condemned the attack as an “act not just of demented violence but of racial hatred” and made an impassioned plea for national unity.
