On Thursday, the men and women of Osceola County’s four law enforcement agencies — the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Osceola County Corrections, Kissimmee Police Department, and St. Cloud Police Department — gathered to remember and honor their comrades fallen in the line of duty over the years.
The solemn annual ceremony took place in the Osceola County Courthouse courtyard, where a black granite Law Enforcement memorial was erected in May 2021.
The event was part of National Police Week and Peace Officer Memorial Day, which was created by Congress and President John F. Kennedy October 1, 1961. The U.S. flag is authorized to fly at half-staff on that day.
Fortunately, no officers in the county died in the line of duty in 2022. For this past year, there is good news that the trend in law enforcement deaths is down, after the record high number of officer deaths in 2021. As of Dec. 31, 2022, 226 federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement officers died in the line of duty. This is a dramatic decrease of approximately 61% from the 586 officers killed in 2021.
Disturbingly, ambushes of officers continue to be one of the leading circumstances of officers killed on duty.
Since 1933, nine members of the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Kissimmee Police Department, and the St. Cloud Police Department have died doing a job to protect and serve the public. Two dozen others, also encompassing the Osceola County Corrections Department, have passed in non-line of duty deaths. The last line of duty death occurring among the county’s four agencies was Deputy Michael Webb, of the Osceola Sheriff’s Office, in August 2021.
In her keynote speech, Osceola County Corrections Deputy Chief Yuberky Almonte encouraged all in attendance to “Stand by the legacy of each of the fallen, as guardians and protectors who dedicated their lives, to share your grief and remember the good they left behind.”
A symbolic “10-7- Last Call” was then heard over a law enforcement radio channel. Underneath a wreath of white flowers, flanked by wreaths from each of the four agencies, law enforcement officers from each agency placed a single blue flower into a vase as the name of each of the thirty-three fallen members of the county’s law enforcement community was read.
Again, this year, the daughters of Kissimmee Police Officer Matthew Baxter — Zarah, Sophia, and Isabella, led by wife and mother Sadia Baxter, who is also a law enforcement officer, placed his flower. Baxter, along with Sgt. Richard “Sam” Howard, were shot in an ambush while on patrol on Aug. 18. 2017. Relatives of Sergeant Howard were also on hand to place his flower.
The memorial ceremony concluded with a 21-gun salute by a joint agency honor guard, and Taps was played by retired U.S. Navy Petty Officer J. Craig Wagner.
