The name of a Cowlitz County sheriff’s deputy killed in April will be engraved on the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C., joining the names of more than 20,000 officers who have died in the line of duty throughout American history.
Justin DeRosier, 29, was shot April 13 while investigating reports of a motor home blocking a road in Kalama. He died the following morning, marking the first line-of-duty death in Cowlitz County in 70 years.
The Law Enforcement Memorial, opened in 1991, sits just a few blocks north of the National Mall, flanked by the National Building Museum.
The memorial is a part of the National Law Enforcement Museum, which maintains an online database of information on the officers featured at its memorial. This can be found at: https://nleomf.org/memorial.
According to the memorial, 43 U.S. officers have died in the line of duty this year. Roughly half of those deaths are firearms-related. Kittitas County sheriff’s deputy Ryan Thompson is the other Washington state lawman who died in the line of duty this year. He was shot and killed in March by a road-rage suspect who also injured another officer during the shooting.