By Tawnya Panizzi
Trib Total Media
McKeesport police Officer Sean Sluganski will be memorialized this month in Washington, D.C., with a bittersweet honor for fallen officers.
Sluganski is one of 282 fallen officers being added this year to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in the nation’s capital.Each was killed in the line of duty in 2023.
Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire’s name also will be engraved on the wall.
McIntire, 46, was gunned down Jan. 2 by suspect Aaron Lamont Swan Jr. of Duquesne after a manhunt that ended along Third Avenue.
Sluganski, 32, was shot and killed Feb. 6 by Johnathan Morris while responding to a domestic dispute on Wilson Street.
The pair are among 24,067 names enshrined on the memorial.
Founded in 1984, the nonprofit National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund is aimed at telling the story of fallen officers and making protocols safer for those who still serve.
Work to engrave the names on the monument kicked off Monday. It is expected to take a few weeks.
A dedication will be hosted at 8 p.m. May 13 during the 36th annual candlelight vigil on the National Mall.
McKeesport police Chief Mark Steele will be there in person, along with some of Sluganski’s fellow officers.
Steele said there is no proper way to describe the feelings.
“We’re glad he will be honored in D.C., but it’s a very sad day for McKeesport and for our department,” Steele said.
“Having his name put on the monument is a deserving recognition for his sacrifice, but it was a tragic loss for us.”
Of the 282 names added this year, 118 are law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty last year. Others were killed in previous years and only recently had their circumstances verified.
Communications specialist Matt Lund said it is a 49% decrease from the 556 names added in 2023. However, many of those were covid-related, he said.
“It’s not necessarily positive news just because it’s less, because one is still too many,” Lund said. “But it’s a step in the right direction.”
Of the names added this year, six officers are from Pennsylvania. They include Jacques Rougeau from the state police, Richard Mendez from Philadelphia, Christopher Fitzgerald from Temple University and Russell Brown from Wayne County.
About 30,000 people typically attend the vigil during National Police Week in May.
“As we come together again this year to commemorate the lives of fallen officers, we recognize the profound sacrifice they made in service to their communities and country,” said William Alexander, CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
“Their memory remains a testament to valor and selflessness, two core tenets that a law enforcement officer abides by when being sworn in to service.”