Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

New statue at Police Memorial Park a tribute to fallen officers

Police statue

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun

Members of a Metro Police honor guard, from left, David Cienega, Matthew Downing and Kenneth Rios, lead a multi-agency honor guard march Wednesday during the arrival of the Southern Nevada Law Enforcement Memorial at Police Memorial Park.

Updated Wednesday, April 29, 2009 | 5:57 p.m.

Police statue

In honor of fallen law enforcement officers, the 25-foot-tall Southern Nevada Law Enforcement Memorial, designed by Artist Adolfo R. Gonzalez, is ready to be escorted by a multi-agency motorcade to Police Memorial Park, 3250 Metro Academy Way. Launch slideshow »

Police Memorial Park

Metro Police Sgt. Henry Prendes responded to a domestic violence call on Feb. 1, 2006. As he approached the front door of a house, a man inside opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle.

Prendes fell injured but his fellow officers couldn’t reach him because the gunman continued spraying bullets into the southwest neighborhood, according to police reports.

Minutes later, the gunman walked up to the 37-year-old Prendes, a 14-year police veteran, and shot him in the head, killing him. Police later gunned down Prendes’ 22-year-old killer.

Prendes was the 22nd and last law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty in Las Vegas.

He, along with the others, were remembered this morning as a motorcade escorted a new Southern Nevada Law Enforcement Memorial statue to Police Memorial Park.

The escort departed the southeast parking lot at Mandalay Bay at 10 a.m., then traveled north on the Strip, west on Flamingo Road, north on Buffalo Drive and west on Cheyenne Avenue to the park at 3250 Metro Academy Way.

The 28-foot statue honoring all fallen law enforcement officers will be dedicated with a candlelight vigil on May 21.

Cars in the motorcade represented the seven agencies that have lost an officer. Metro has lost 15 officers, including in the days before the city police department and sheriff’s office merged. Two officers have died serving North Las Vegas and one each with the Nevada Highway Patrol, Henderson Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Nellis Air Force Base and the Union Pacific Railroad.

The first to be killed was Joe Mulholland, a newly appointed night watchman with the railroad. He was gunned down in a saloon on Oct. 1, 1905.

The statue, designed by artist Adolfo Gonzalez, represents all law enforcement officers, said Metro Detective Tina Ellison, a member of the committee that commissioned the memorial. “They all play a major part in keeping Las Vegas safe,” she said.

The committee wanted a reminder of the service of the officers, not of the tragic events that ended their lives, Ellison said.

“We wanted a place where the families of these fallen officers would have meaning,” she said. “We wanted the families to not remember just the sadness but to remember what those guys did for this community.”

Each component of the statue has significance. Its three towers represent the federal, state and local levels of law enforcement. Atop each pillar, illuminated eternal flames remind officers of their lost comrades.

An eagle with a 9-foot wingspan embodies the guardian of the country, and because the memorial is on a hill looking east over the valley, it will stand as a guardian over Las Vegas, Ellison said.

In its talons, the eagle carries a shield — the badge of honor worn by officers — enveloped in an American flag.

A thin blue light wraps around the slate base, representing the “thin blue line” as it relates to police work.

“Back in the day, back when things were just forming, it was the line between good and evil,” Ellison said. “It’s the code of honor that law enforcement will be the good and will combat the evil.”

The committee received nearly $400,000 in donations from residents to build the memorial.

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