WASHINGTON –Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs John Tahsuda, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Director Thomas J. Walters, Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety Director Jesse Delmar and the Department of the Interior-Office of Law Enforcement and Security Director Darren Cruzan, are among federal and Indian Country representatives slated to speak at the 27 th Annual Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service on Thursday, May 3, 2018, at the United States Indian Police Academy in Artesia, N.M.
The Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service honors tribal, state, local and federal law enforcement officers who have given their lives in the line of duty while serving on federal Indian lands and in the tribal communities. It is also during this occasion when the names of the officers who will be added to the Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial monument at the academy are formally announced.
The 27th Annual Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service will be live-streamed. To view the event, visit https://livestream.com/accounts/85948/BIAmemorial and type in the password “biamemorial”
WHO: Charles Addington, Deputy Bureau Director, BIA-Office of Justice Services, Master of Ceremony John Tahsuda, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, DOI Thomas J. Walters, Director, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Glencoe, GA Jesse Delmar, Director, Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety, Window Rock, AZ Darren Cruzan, Director, Department of the Interior-Office of Law Enforcement and Security, Washington, DC .
WHAT: Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs John Tahsuda will deliver remarks and Deputy Bureau Director of the BIA - Office of Justice Services Charles Addington will serve as master of ceremony at the 27th Annual Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service where the names of two fallen law enforcement officers will be added to the memorial.
WHEN: Thursday, May 3, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. MDT.
WHERE: BIA Indian Police Academy, DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, 1300 West Richey Avenue, Artesia, N.M. Phone (505) 748-8151 for directions. CREDENTIALS: This invitation is extended to working media representatives, who are required to display sanctioned media credentials for admittance to the event. Press seating will be provided. Credentialed media covering the event should be in place by 9:45 a.m. for the program beginning at 10:00 a.m.
To view an image of the Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and a list of the officers’ names inscribed on it, visit https://www.fletc.gov/indian-country-law-enforcement-officers-memorial
The event is held annually on the first Thursday in May, BIA-OJS conducts the memorial service in conjunction with International Chiefs of Police’s Indian Country Law Enforcement Section and other law enforcement organizations and agencies, including the National Sheriffs’ Association and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers in Artesia, where the monument, academy and memorial service are located. The Director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers and representatives of the Chickasaw Nation and Navajo Nation, whose officers are being added to the memorial this year, will be in attendance. The names of two officers added at this year’s ceremony will bring the total number listed on the memorial to 116:
- Navajo Nation Police Officer Houston Largo who was killed on April 12, 2017 while conducting a traffic stop of two individuals suspected in a reported domestic violence incident on Navajo Nation Reservation.
- Nelson Onepennee, Game Warden with Yakama Nation Police Department who was on April 11, 1980 while on patrol along the Columbia River when his vehicle left the roadway and plunged down a steep embankment.
