Lee Trawick
Reporter2@riverbendnews.org
On Saturday, July 2, Lafayette County Sheriff’s Deputy Lonny Hempstead was honored by an organization called "Beyond the Call of Duty." Beyond the Call of Duty is an organization based out of Washington State, founded by Jagurut Shah. Shah is a former deputy sheriff; the "End of Watch Ride to Remember" is a way the organization pays homage to the fallen officers who lost their lives in the call of duty. "I wanted to bridge the gap, give back to the departments, and let the surviving officers and their families know that their loss has not been forgotten," Shah said.
The term "End of Watch" is generated by the ceremony in which a police dispatcher issues a final call to a fallen officer over the radio, followed by silence. The call is sent out to all officers within the department and all observe a moment of silence as a gesture of remembrance of their fallen brother or sister.
In 2020, the "End of Watch Ride to Remember" was an 18,000 mile journey in honor of the 146 officers killed in the line of duty in 2019. Then, in 2021, they embarked on the longest continuous ride in the United States and the longest memorial ride, where they traveled 23,500 miles in honor of 339 officers killed in the line of duty. Beginning on June 1, 2022, they rode 21,000 miles over 79 days for the unprecedented and alarming number of 600 fallen officers in the line of duty. Among those who have fallen was Lafayette County Deputy Lonny Hempstead, who passed away on Aug. 10, 2021.
To honor deputy Hempstead, the organization traveled to Lafayette County to show he has not been forgotten. The group stopped by the sheriff's office in Mayo, where officers gathered to thank Shah and his organization. This gave the officers on hand an opportunity to cling to the memory of Hempstead and reflect on the impact he made throughout the community and the department he so bravely served.
