Sergeant Roger P. Fleming was killed in the line of duty in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on October 27, 1992. The brief language that follows this pronouncement on the memorials erected in his memory describes the crash that took his life. A little more than a year later, Corporal John L. Bagileo would be lost to the Prince George’s County Police Department (PGPD) in similar circumstances. In both instances, the officers were posthumously advanced in rank and memorials to their service were erected at police headquarters, the district stations where they were serving at the time of their deaths, and at the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) lodge. As is the case with any memorial, their impact is diminished to the extent that the visitor is distanced from the event or the people memorialized. However, some of those still serving remember these events vividly.

Almost two decades later, on March 9, 2010, Corporal Thomas (Tommy) P. Jensen was killed in circumstances similar to those that killed John Bagileo. Two years later, on August 20, 2012, Officer Adrian A. Morris, just 23 years old, was killed in virtually the same crash that took the life of Roger Fleming in 1992. Each of them was driving the same make and model of vehicle, each engaged in the same activity, and each died of the same pattern of injury. Then, Officer First Class Kevin D. Bowden was killed in an off-duty crash two months later, in October 2012. His broken cruiser was almost a mirror image of John Bagileo’s following that crash 18 years prior.