The names of eleven law enforcement officers and one canine partner who died in the line of duty in Oklahoma were recently engraved on the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Memorial in Oklahoma City. Their names will be dedicated during the 53rd Annual Oklahoma Law Enforcement Memorial Service, which is scheduled for the morning of Friday, May 7, 2021 at 10 a.m.
The Oklahoma Law Enforcement Memorial is the oldest state memorial honoring its fallen officers in the United States and was dedicated May 15, 1969. The non-profit memorial organization is totally funded by donations. Over forty percent of all the Deputy U.S. Marshals who have died in the line of duty in the United States died in what is now the state of Oklahoma and are honored on the state’s law enforcement memorial.
Five of the officers, who died in past years, had not been added previously as the memorial was still researching their circumstances to confirm their death as line of duty.
The memorial is located on the west grounds of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety Headquarters, 3600 M. L. King Avenue in Oklahoma City.
The eleven fallen officers and one canine partner being added are:
Jesse Whitfield Morris, Deputy Sheriff, Washita County, died February 3, 1910;
John Sanders, Deputy Sheriff, Adair County, died September 14, 1915;
W. H. Corder, Deputy Sheriff, Ottawa County, died October 23, 1917;
Raymond Thomas “Buck” Boston, Sheriff, Montgomery County, Illinois, died July 23, 1947;
Dale Maloy Harbolt, Special Agent, ATF, U.S. Treasury Department, died June 7, 1976;
John Chukwydiut Okafor, Corporal, Detention Officer, Tulsa County, died April 15, 2020;
Craig Vincent Johnson, Sergeant, Tulsa Police Department, died June 30, 2020;
Jeffery Wade Sewell, Captain, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, died September 26, 2020;
Jerad Matthew Lindsey, Officer, Tulsa Police Department, died October 28, 2020;
Billy Dewayne Allen, Sr., US Dept of Defense – Ft Sill Police Department, died December 6, 2020;
Lindal “Dewayne” Hall, Chief Deputy, McIntosh County, died December 14, 2020;
Canine Oli, Muskogee Police Department, died July 1, 2020.
For more information on these officers or the other over eight hundred officers who have died in the line of duty in Oklahoma go to the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Memorial web site:
www.oklemem.com
