Ceremonies salute fallen officers

Monday, May 11, 1998 | 8:12 a.m.

On Monday, five Nevada peace officers will be remembered when their names are included on the James D. Hoff Peace Officers Memorial at Idlewild Park in Reno.

Among those to be memorialized are University of Nevada Police Sgt. George Sullivan, who was killed in January by a hatchet-wielding attacker.

Two other officers, Washoe County Sheriff's Sgt. Frank Minnie and Elko County Sheriff's Sgt. Travis Maki, were killed last year in traffic accidents.

The names of two Virginia City police officers, Dennis McMahon and John Reed, also will be added to the memorial. McMahon and Reed were killed in a gun battle on April 12, 1863.

Sullivan, 43, a 19-year UNR officer, husband and father of five, was killed Jan. 13 near his patrol car on the UNR campus.

A suspect, Siaosi Vanisi, 27, was arrested the next day in Salt Lake City and remains jailed pending a January, 1999 trial date.

Minnie, 44, a motorcycle patrolman, was responding to a trespassing call on May 3 last year when he fell from the bike. He died two days later.

Maki, 32, died Nov. 29 when he fell or jumped from a fog-shrouded overpass on Interstate-80 as he assisted at an accident scene. He fell to railroad tracks below and died instantly.

The Peace Officers Memorial is named for Hoff, a 33-year-old undercover drug officer who was fatally stabbed in 1979 at Idlewild Park, where the monument is located.

Monday's ceremony begins at 10 a.m.

On Wednesday, state officials and representatives of law enforcement agencies from around the state will gather in Carson City to dedicate another memorial to fallen peace officers.

The Nevada Law Enforcement Police Officers Memorial will be unveiled at noon Wednesday in front of the Supreme court building on the Capital mall. A candlelight vigil will be held later that night for the perpetual lighting of the monument.

The memorial is a full-size bronze statue of a fatally wounded officer being assisted by a fellow officer.

Behind the two officers is a list of names of all Nevada officers killed in the line of duty. The 84 names date from the 1861 death of Carson City Sheriff John Blackburn to the death in March of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer Russell Peterson.

"The sad part is there is room for more names," Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller said.

Peterson, 40, a member of the department's search and rescue unit, was killed when struck by falling ice during a mountainside training exercise on Mount Charleston.