Milwaukee-area police begin trek to Washington, D.C., to honor fallen officers

By Mallory Anderson

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    MILWAUKEE (WISN) — In Greenfield Wednesday, police motorcycles were loaded up on a semitrailer, destined for Washington, D.C., to honor fallen officers.

A huge truck, donned with the badges of fallen Wisconsin police officers, parked outside of House of Harley on Layton Avenue early Wednesday, ready to be packed to the brim with police motorcycles.

Those motorcycles will be ridden by Wisconsin police officers and sheriff’s deputies in Washington, D.C., this weekend and next week. Law enforcement will be escorting the families of fallen officers at a candlelight vigil on the National Mall on Monday and at other events throughout the week.

Five officers will be added to the national law enforcement memorial this year, including Milwaukee police officer Peter Jerving. Jerving died on the job in a gun battle with a robbery suspect on Feb. 7, 2023.

In all, 282 names will be added to the memorial this year.

The events in Washington are a part of Police Memorial Weekend and National Police Week.

The officers and motorcycles heading to the nation’s capital are from Milwaukee police, Madison police, the Wisconsin State Patrol, Fitchburg police, Racine police, New Berlin police, and the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.

Jerving’s mother, Patty, said she’ll be heading to D.C. with her family to honor her son.

“The Milwaukee Police Department is paying for me and my husband and our children, our surviving children, to attend Police Week,” Patty Jerving said. “So we’re flying down on Saturday. I don’t know what all to expect yet. There’s going to be a candlelight vigil, and then they’re going to have a wreath-laying ceremony that’s going to be an all-day thing. They said to wear comfortable shoes. My husband and I, and the kids, we’ve never been to D.C., so we’re looking forward to that. But it’ll be bittersweet seeing the city and knowing what we’re there for.”

Jerving said she’s been blown away by the support they’ve received from law enforcement and knows it will be an important opportunity to connect with mothers who have also lost their children in the line of duty.

“I’ve been in contact with a couple of mothers who, over the past few years, lost their sons,” Jerving said. “It was comforting to me to hear their stories and to think they traveled this road before me. I’ve had questions to them, and they’ve helped me along the way. Then to go to D.C. and hear other stories, too, that’s going to be very meaningful for me, too.”

The Jerving family says while the week will be difficult, they see this trip as a celebration of life for the families of the fallen.

“For so long after Peter died, I couldn’t look at his official police portrait without crying,” Jerving said. “But now I look at it with pride, you know? I’m sad, and we miss him very much, but we’re proud of what he did. He took the things that we taught him as a child over into adulthood, and he used those values right up to the very end.”

The truck that will be transporting the bikes is donated by HaulBikes of Milwaukee. The House of Harley-Davidson also donates costs associated with the transport.

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