TERRE HAUTE —
Memorial services for a Terre Haute police officer gunned down in the line of duty last week began Sunday with a dignified flag presentation ceremony.
Before approximately 300 family, friends and fellow Terre Haute law enforcement officers, Officer Brent D. Long, who died last Monday while attempting to serve an arrest warrant, received a folded American flag.
Terre Haute Police Chief John Plasse read a statement honoring Long and offering a prayer that the flag will “offer [Long] the comfort of a grateful nation.”
Shadow, Long’s highlytrained K-9 partner who was with him on his final assignment, attended the brief ceremony, which took place in a large meeting room at the Hulman Center. An otherwise silent room was pierced several times by the lone barks of Shadow, who was still wearing a blue muzzle designed to help his jaw heal. Shadow also was struck by gunfire during Monday’s shooting incident on North Eighth Street.
“Officer Brent Daniel Long courageously stood his post representing what is best in society,” Plasse said during the ceremony. “By simply putting on his uniform, going to work every day, Brent made this country, this community, a better place to live.”
Other than Plasse’s brief statement, a few commands given to a police honor guard and the heart-wrenching barks from Shadow, the 10-minute ceremony was virtually silent.
Funeral services for Long, 34, will take place today at 11 a.m. in Hulman Center. Interment will be at Mount Pleasant Cemetery after the service.
‘A grateful nation’
Statement by Terre Haute Police Chief John Plasse at flag presentation ceremony for Officer Brent D. Long, Sunday, July 17, 2011.
“In a nation of laws, patriotism knows no greater champion than that which is found in a police officer. Standing on the thin blue line separating peace from anarchy, a police officer knows that the war will never end. A police officer stands there anyway, a vigilant sentry fighting the continuing war one battle at a time. Officer Brent Daniel Long courageously stood his post representing what is best in society. Going into places that the average person fears to tread, seeing things that nobody wants to see. By simply putting on his uniform, going to work every day, Brent made this country, this community, a better place to live. Therefore, I present Brent this flag of the United States of America, a symbol of hope with a prayer that it will offer him the comfort of a grateful nation.”
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