National Peace Officers Day: Fort Lee Remembers Officer Killed in Line of Duty

Tuesday is Peace Officers Memorial Day. In memory of all fallen officers, flags across the country will be flown at half-staff to honor all the law enforcement officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy designated May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day, a day to honor law enforcement officers and the calendar week in which that day falls—May 13 to 19 this year—as National Police Week.

Fort Lee Police Officer William Birch was shot and killed on September 4, 1966 while responding to a holdup alarm at a hotel on Route 4 West.

As he arrived on scene one of the two suspects exited the hotel lobby and shot him three times, killing him. The suspect then abducted a couple at gunpoint and forced them to drive away. The suspect was arrested a short time later after a shootout with officers. The man he abducted also assisted with the arrest as he was armed at the time the suspect abducted them.

The second suspect was also apprehended after a shootout with officers. The suspect who shot Birch was sentenced to death but had the sentenced commuted to life in prison in 1972, when the death penalty was abolished. The man was paroled in 1982.

But in January 2005, at the age of 79, he was returned to prison for violating his parole for attempting to sell a handgun to an informant while bragging that he killed a police officer and got away with serving only 15 years. He died in prison in 2007.

Birch was 26 and was survived by his wife and three daughters.