SOUTHPORT, Ind. (WTHR) - The flag flew at half-staff at Southport High School Friday in memory of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officer Breann Leath, who was shot and killed in the line of duty Thursday.
Lashelle Day called her friend "Bre." They first met in the 6th grade and graduated together from Southport in 2014.
"Bre loved pigs and for her graduation her mom got her a pig and Bre was just the happiest girl ever," recalled Day.
But Leath’s life was taken away at age 24, less than six years after leaving high school.
"Bre always said if she was to go, she's going to die for her country, doing something that she loved to do," said Day.
After graduation, Leath joined the Indiana National Guard.
"With her, it was just something different,” said Indiana National Guard Sgt. Stephan Mann, who recruited Leath. “The family was 100 percent supportive. You have a father that had been in law enforcement for so long and knew what his daughter was going to do and gave the OK and knew that she was going to do something great. She was destined for greatness. And that's the one thing I want everyone to understand. She was going places."
Leath served three years in the military police company of the National Guard and was also a corrections officer at the Indiana Women's Prison before joining IMPD.
"Some people in life only get one opportunity to do it,” said Mann. “They put on one uniform and serve. Well, she got to do it twice and never asked for anything in return. And she loved her job. She loved what she did every day. This was her dream job."
But Leath’s life was more than police work. She has a four-year-old son.
"I don't want people to remember her as an officer,” said Day. “I want to remember her as a loving, caring friend, a mother, sister, and not just an officer that passed."