• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

City Cops Ride for Fallen Colleague: Money Goes to Police Museum and Memorial

Posted on: Thursday, 9 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Alyson Matley, Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon

Mar. 8--Four Key West police officers are preparing to make a 250-mile bicycle trip to honor their fallen colleague John Piskator, who died from heart failure while training with the department's Special Response Team in January.

Officers Donnie Barrios, Bradley Lariz, Kelly Thomas and Jose Fernandez are looking for sponsors for the May Police Unity Tour that will take them and some 600 other law-enforcement officers astride bikes from Chesapeake, Va., to Washington, D.C.

This will be the second year for Barrios and Lariz.

"We were bike partners" last year, Barrios said. "We were in the bike unit. We got the chief's approval, raised the necessary funds and went."

Piskator was felled by a heart attack while he was jogging, something he loved to do, according to Key West Police Chief Bill Mauldin. The 41-year-old officer left behind a fiance, Pam Lillard, who intends to make the trek with the four officers.

"The ride is only for law-enforcement officers, either active or retired," Barrios said. "But they make exceptions for survivors. Pam is a survivor, so she will be joining us."

Appropriately, Piskator worked the day shift as a bicycle officer in Bahama Village.

The event began in 1997 and involves police from all over the eastern U.S.

The goal of the tour is to raise awareness not only of fallen officers but also to raise money for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and the National Law Enforcement Officers Museum. Since its inception, the tour has raised more than $2 million for the memorial fund.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, in D.C., honors all law officers killed in the United States. Its walls are inscribed with more than 16,000 names of federal, state and local officers who have been killed in the line of duty since 1794.

Two separate routes make up the tour.

Officers from the Northeast ride from New Jersey to Washington. Southern officers ride from Virginia. All of the riders convene in the shadow of the Washington Monument.

Barrios says he's looking forward to the three-day trek as a way to honor Piskator.

Though the ride isn't until May, he and the other four riders are looking for financial support now.

"We need to raise the necessary funds by April 15," he said. "Our goal, we must raise $1,500 for each rider."

Anyone interested in sponsoring an officer can call the Key West Police Department at 809-1000. For more information about the tour itself, check out the Web site www.florida policeunitytour.org.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

NYSE:CSK,

Source: Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon, Fla.

More News in this Category