McNairy Co. event celebrates and honors law enforcement
JACKSON, Tenn.—From the jeep club to a groundbreaking, this event brought a good time for the community.
The Tennessee Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation Incorporated held a jeep ride today along with a groundbreaking at the Robert K. Lee Justice Center in Selmer.
McNairy County Sheriff, Guy Buck, said that he was pleased with the support of the event.
“That was the catalyst to bring people out. We had 126 jeeps from all over West Tennessee. From Alabama, from Mississippi. Really and truly, I really don’t know where they all came from. But we had 126 jeeps that participated in a jeep ride and we had food vendors set up. We had music on site and we had a lot of rain,” Buck said.
He said that they registered in the rain and held the groundbreaking ceremony in the rain but it did not stop anything.
Since Tennessee has became a state, there have been 742 officers that have died on duty.
“We’re gonna build it here on the property at the Robert K. Lee Justice center here in Selmer. It’s gonna be about 40 feet long, 5 feet tall and then a center piece of black granite that’ll be about 7 feet tall with an internal flame on the top,” Buck said.
He says that this project has been in discussion for 10 years and that they started the non-profit organization last year, as well as funding for the project.
“We hope that next year at the 2nd annual that we will actually have the dedication of the wall. This is a grass roots funded project where individuals, businesses, locally and from anywhere have donated to it and we’re rapidly approaching our target goal, so we think that by next year, we’ll have the dedication,” Buck said.
Sheriff Buck shared what will make this wall stand out from others.
“Not just their name. Their name, their agency and the date that they gave their sacrifice. When you go to Washington, it’s just a name. You have to go find it and you can do a stencil. Here you will be able to do not just their name, but the agency and the date,” Buck said.
Sheriff Buck said that after the creation of the wall, they will continue to add names every year in memory of fallen officers.
For more local news stories, click here.
