Inkster police hold vigil for fallen officers | JQJO

INKSTER, Michigan — Police, residents and community leaders gathered Thursday for an indoor candlelight vigil at the Inkster police station to honor four officers killed in the line of duty, including three slain in a notorious 1987 ambush at the Bungalow Motel. With temperatures outside near 90 degrees, the ceremony was moved indoors but still drew current and former law enforcement officers, elected officials and relatives of the fallen. Police Chief Tamika Jenkins told attendees that the officers were more than their badges, describing them as husbands, fathers, sons, friends and neighbors whose deaths left lasting pain for their families and the wider community.

Sgt. Ira Parker, 41, and officers Clay Hoover, 24, and Daniel John Dubiel, 36, were shot and killed on July 9, 1987, after entering a motel room to serve a warrant on Alberta Easter, who, along with her three sons, took two of the officers captive before opening fire when Parker arrived. The suspects were arrested after a 10-hour standoff in which hundreds of rounds were exchanged, and Easter and her sons were later convicted; one son, Roy Lemons Jr., now 86, remains imprisoned. The vigil also commemorated Officer Kenneth Woodmore, a four-year department veteran fatally shot in 1994 by a suspected drug dealer who is serving a life sentence. Jenkins said the department formally honors its fallen officers every year and plans a larger event next year to mark the 40th anniversary of the motel ambush, stressing that the agency is committed to keeping their memory alive.