Peace Officers’ Memorial Service in Atascadero honors five officers
City of Atascadero Police Officers Memorial. Photo courtesy of City of Atascadero facebook.
Officers who died in the line of duty remembered at memorial service
Five officers were remembered during the memorial service. Photo courtesy of City of Atascadero facebook.
–Fiver Californian officers were remembered Thursday, May 19 during the Peace Officers’ Memorial Service at the Faces of Freedom Veterans Memorial on Morro Road in Atascadero. The officers died in the line of duty from May 2015 to present and were honored with a rose along with how each officer lost their life.
The five officers are as follows:
• Officer David Nelson, Bakersfield Police Department, EOW: June 26, 2015
• Sergeant Scott Lunger, Hayward Police Dept. EOW: July 22, 2015
• Officer Bryce Hanes, San Bernardino Police Dept. EOW: November 5, 2015
• Deputy Scott Ballantyne, Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, EOW: February 20, 2016
• Officer Nathan Taylor, California Highway Patrol, EOW: March 13, 2016
The memorial was hosted by the San Luis Obispo County Criminal Justice Administrators Association and included a caravan of county law enforcement agency vehicles which paraded southbound on Highway 101 from the Sheriff’s Department substation in Templeton to Atascadero, to the veterans memorial which is located at the corner of Highway 41 and Portola Road.
The Faces of Freedom Veterans Memorial is designed to honor and recognize all of the nation’s military members, including past, present and future. It places a special emphasis on the 26,000 veterans that call San Luis Obispo County home.
The Peace Officers Memorial is part of National Police Week observed from May 15 – 21, 2016. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week. Currently, tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from around the world converge on Washington, DC and throughout the county to participate in a number of planned events which honor those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.
