Share the love with local police Monday
May 4—Boone County Unified is a family friendly event that celebrates law enforcement and remembers their fallen brothers, rain or shine.
And it returns to the downtown Lebanon square at 5:30 p.m. Monday in honor of National Police Week, May 14-20.
"Come one, come all," Boone County Sheriff's Deputy and organizer Wesley Garst said. "There will be a kids' zone with face painting and a bubble machine. The first hour is the meet-and-greet part with free food and drinks. We always have a lot of food."
The event used to be called a police memorial and appreciation event, but Boone County's police agencies have increasingly emphasized unity among the departments and community in the event's first hour.
Law enforcement officers from numerous agencies, including the Department of Natural Resources, Indiana State Police, local police agencies, and others will visit with the public until 6:30 p.m., when a law enforcement ceremony will begin to honor local police who have fallen in the line of duty.
"It's important to memorialize the ones who have fallen and good to honor the ones still here fighting the battles that we have today," Garst said previously. "And I know fighting is a rough term to use, but that's what we're doing, certainly on some days."
The event will begin on the east side of the Boone County Courthouse and move between the former Boone County Jail and the Lebanon Public Library for the ceremony, weather permitting. Some attendees were sunburned last year, and the spot west of the library affords more shade, Garst said.
In the event of rain, things will move inside the courthouse.
Boone County officers who have died in the line of duty include:
Jacob Matthew Picket
Boone County Sheriff's Deputy 'Jake' Pickett, 34 at the time of his death, succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained March 2, 2018, while aiding the Lebanon Police Department in a manhunt.
Three men fled police when LPD went to a Lebanon home to serve a warrant. Pickett and his K-9 partner pursued one suspect who shot Pickett as he rounded a corner of an apartment building on foot.
Pickett was taken to Witham Health Services and then flow to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis where he was kept on life support until March 5 so his organs could be donated.
His assailant pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Michael Earl Greene
Indiana State Police Master Trooper Michael Earl Greene, 43 at the time of his death, was fatally shot Feb. 5, 1993, by one of two men he saw urinating along Interstate 65 just south of Boone County.
Both were wanted on outstanding warrants, and one suspect shot Greene as he handcuffed the other suspect. The shooter was sentenced to death but died in prison in 2007. The other was convicted of reckless homicide and has since been released from prison.
Richard Gerald Brown
Indiana State Police Trooper Richard G. Brown, 40 at the time of his death, was investigating an accident Sept. 27, 1967, when another vehicle struck and killed him on Interstate 74 between Jamestown and Lizton.
The second accident also killed two others and critically injured one person.
John Miller
Indiana State Police Sgt. John Miller, 35 at the time of his death, was killed Sept. 5, 1955, in a plane crash just south of Lebanon when the plane he was in, that was used to spot traffic violations from the sky, took a sharp turn and crashed in a field.
John Peper
Boone County Sheriff John Peper, 38 at the time of his death, had held office only five weeks when he suffered fatal injuries from a crash on a sleet-covered road Feb. 7, 1935.
He and a deputy were responding to another accident on U.S. 52 just north of Lebanon when the car they were in lost control and flipped.
Peper's wife was appointed as sheriff to serve the remainder of his term. She was Boone County's first female sheriff and only the third woman to serve as a sheriff in Indiana.
