A large group gathered at a vigil Friday night for a fallen IMPD officer.
"Our Father, who art in Heaven," prayed a room full of police officers, their families and citizens gathered at the Fraternal Order of Police headquarters on Shelby Street Friday night.
As the crowd prayed, they held up hundreds of blue glow sticks that bathed the room in blue light, recalling the proverbial thin blue line IMPD Officer Rod Bradway held Friday morning, defending a stranger who needed his help.
"He didn't know her, but he gave his life for her. He acted upon what he knew was the right thing to do at the moment," Pastor Christopher Holland with The Father's House told the room.
For five-year IMPD veteran Bradway, that meant breaking down the door of a woman who was calling for help, while she and her infant child were being held hostage at gunpoint by the woman's ex-boyfriend.
"Rod never thought of himself. He always thought of the person that he was there to help," said fellow IMPD Officer Michael Skeens.
That kind of servant's attitude cost Officer Bradway his life when the woman's ex-boyfriend, hiding behind the door, opened fire, killing Bradway, a husband and father of two.
"The men and women of IMPD are hurting. They're hurting tonight and they need the girding up that can only come from prayer," said Fraternal Order of Police #86 President Bill Owensby.
In the crowd of police officers, their families and everyday citizens, some wore t-shirts remembering another fallen officer, Officer David Moore. The shirts served as a reminder of the danger that's always there for these officers.
"They have and they will get up and get dressed for work and go out and perform valiantly," said Owensby. "They will do it, masking pain as they think of their brother who gave the ultimate sacrifice."
"It's a poignant reminder of something that's always in the back of your mind. And it's very hard when it's pushed in the forefront like this," said IMPD Lt. Marshall Depew of the risk officers live with every time they're on the job.
And so, the IMPD police family shrouds its badges in black.
"I never like to put these on and hope that the next funeral's the last," said Depew.
Knowing full well, said Depew, it won't be, but officers choose to protect and serve anyway.
