During the vigil held on the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Capitol, the names of 345 fallen officers who were enshrined onto the memorial this year were read aloud.
Officials and dignitaries also read speeches honoring the fallen and all law enforcement officers while the audience held umbrellas.
NLEOMF CEO Bill Alexander said the rain would not stop the event. “Braving the elements did not stop our fallen heroes from working, and it will not stop us from honoring them, even if the weather will not cooperate,” he said.
The most moving speech was from NLEOMF Board member Lori Sharpe Day who told the story of her daughter who is a student at Florida State University. In April with an active shooter on campus, her daughter texted her to alert her to the situation.
She said waiting to hear from her daughter during the anxious hours at FSU gave her a taste of what officers’ families experience when they go to work.
“The answer to our prayers were the officers at FSU. They were the only thing between those students and a madman with a gun,” Sharpe Day said.
Connie Moyer, president of Concerns of Police Survivors reminded the attendees that the vigil is “very meaningful for survivors.”
The rain and wind abated enough for the candles to be lit with many of them being shielded by umbrellas.