Honoring the latest fallen Philadelphia police and firefighters

Hundreds of police officers and firefighters turned out to Philadelphia’s Franklin Square this afternoon to honor another colleague who died in the line of duty.

Mayor Jim Kenney added the name of Officer Walter J. Dewitt III to the list of the fallen, saying “it is not how they die that makes them heroes, but how they lived.”

 

Dewitt was a firearms officer at the training academy and served 33 years on the force when he died in 2015.  He died in surgery to repair a shoulder fracture that he first sustained on the job in 1995.  He re-injured the shoulder at work in the fall of 2014 and the surgey was supposed to help him recover.

Dewitt was 55 years old when he died.

The ceremony honored him as one of nearly 500 police and firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty over the years.