Descendents remember fallen officers at annual service today

YOUNGSTOWN

On occasion, Marisa Litch plays the home video that recorded her dancing and prancing about when she was a toddler more than three decades ago.

Behind the camera was her doting father, John “Sonny” Litch.

“It may seem strange, but certain smells and music remind me of him,” said Marisa Litch, a caseworker with Mahoning County Children Services Board.

That is one of the few direct memories Marisa has of her father, a Mahoning County sheriff’s deputy and firefighter who was shot to death Oct. 22, 1981, in the line of duty when she was about 19 months old.

Litch and 25 other law-enforcement officers in Mahoning County were remembered and honored during today’s annual Fallen Officers Memorial at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 343 Via Mount Carmel Drive.

The Youngstown Police Department Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 28 and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office FOP Lodge 141 hosted the somber 90-minute gathering.

Those sworn to protect society must have vigilance as a top priority, even though it sometimes comes at a high cost, said Jay McDonald, Ohio State FOP president and a Marion, Ohio, police officer.

To underscore his point, McDonald noted that 20,267 names are etched on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. About 1,500 police officers have died in the line of duty within the last 10 years, including 112 killed in 2013 nationwide, he continued.

Read more about the ceremonies in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.