MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Some Memphis roads lit up Friday night with the glow of blue light.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers gathered together outside the Liberty Bowl to form a procession with their cruisers and became a “Sea of Blue.”
The cruisers bore the names of fallen officers.
“It just takes me back to 2000 when my brother was killed,” said Sara Peete-Murphy, sister of fallen Shelby County Deputy Rupert Peete.
She stood alongside Andrea Woods, the wife of fallen Memphis Police Officer Anthony Woods and addressed the crowd.
They told WREG they were struck by the show of support.
“It’s hard work. You want your family member to come home. You don’t want to have to get that call,” Woods told WREG.
Police confirmed the Mid-South has lost more than 100 officers in the line of duty.
Recently, two Memphis officers suffered gunshot wounds in separate incidents.
Neither lost their lives.
One of those shootings happened this week.
“I asked him was he still shaking and he admittedly said, ‘Yes I’m still shaking.’ He’s still having memories of it all,” said Deputy Director of Memphis Police Anthony Berryhill, referring to the officer who survived this week’s assault.
MPD Director Toney Armstrong was noticeably absent from the event’s opening remarks.
A MPD spokesperson said Armstrong had business to tend to.
In Armstrong’s place, Berryhill addressed even the police’s harshest critics about why events like Friday’s matter.
“Even the bad guys. They don’t want to live in a city or town where there isn’t law enforcement,” Berryhill said.
At the podium, he told officers the community needed them.
He told WREG he believed relationships between MPD officers and citizens was generally positive.
