The Minnesota House unanimously passed measures Thursday to rename a pair of highway stretches after fallen police officers.
Measures to rename highways after fallen officers head to governor
The bills would honor Sgt. Joseph Bergeron, killed in 2010, and Officer Scott Patrick, killed last year.
May 14, 2015 at 9:40PM
The first bill sponsored by would name a section of Highway 36 in Maplewood the Sergeant Joseph Bergeron Memorial Highway. Bergeron, a veteran police officer and married father of two, was killed in an ambush in 2010. The suspect was later killed by police.
A second bill sponsored by Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, who also represents nearby Mendota Heights, designates a portion of Highway 149, or Dodd Road, in Mendota Heights and West St. Paul as the "Officer Scott Patrick Memorial Highway."
Patrick, a 19-year veteran of the police department, was shot and killed last year during a traffic stop on Dodd Road. Brian Fitch Sr. was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for Patrick's murder.
Patrick was a married father of two. Atkins worked with the family and fellow officers to memorialize the fallen officer.
Choking back tears, Atkins told his colleagues on the House floor that he knew Patrick. He called the stretch named for him as "The road on which he lived, the road on which he patrolled and the road on which he died."
On Friday, Patrick's name will be added to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington D.C.
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