by Wesley Harris
The name of a local law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty last year has been inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C.
Dubach Officer Russell Croxton was killed in a traffic crash on April 27, 2024 after an 18-wheeler struck him and his patrol car while he was conducting a traffic stop on U.S. 167.
Croxton had previously served as Dubach’s police chief and later as a Louisiana Tech University patrol officer. He had recently returned to the Dubach force to serve his hometown and be closer to his family.
Officer Croxton joins his father Ruston Police sergeant Raymond Croxton on the memorial.
Sergeant Croxton was killed in a crash where his patrol car left the roadway in an apparent pursuit on Cedar Creek Road on May 23, 1978. Russell was six years old at the time.
The new names carved into the memorial were unveiled last week.
Each year prior to National Police Week, the names of the fallen are engraved on the walls of the memorial. On May 13, the names of officers who made the ultimate sacrifice during 2024, as well as the names of the newly discovered historical line-of-duty deaths, were dedicated and read aloud during our annual Candlelight Vigil.
The memorial received 345 more names last week; only 165 of those officers died in 2024. The others were added from historical research of past line-of-duty deaths.
The memorial now contains nearly 24,000 names of American law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty going back to the country’s founding.
The only other Lincoln Parish officers listed on the memorial are Ruston police chief John Tom Sisemore, murdered in 1898, and Louisiana state trooper William Michael Kees, who died in a crash during a vehicle pursuit in 1983.
Information on another Ruston officer who was murdered in 1940 is being prepared for submission to the memorial.
Andrew Harrison “Hal” Posey was shot and killed on a disturbance call on November 24, 1940. The suspect in that case attempted to shoot another officer accompanying Posey, but his pistol misfired.
