Ceremony honors Carson City Sheriff’s deputies who died in the line of duty

Carson City Sheriff’s officers who have died in the line of duty were memorialized on Thursday.

Deputies placed a flower beneath the wreath memorializing all five Carson sheriff’s deputies who have died in the line of duty since the 1860s. The most recent was Carl G. Howell, a nine-year veteran, who was shot by a suspect while responding to a domestic battery report in August 2015.

Mayor Bob Crowell told the more than 50 people who turned out for the memorial that law enforcement officers are “our shield” against violence.

The first Carson City law enforcement officer to die on duty was Sheriff John Blackburn, stabbed in December 1861 by a California murder suspect he was trying to arrest. He was followed by Sheriff Timothy Smith, shot in December 1867 during an arrest, then Vern Carvin who died in October 1949 of a heart attack while trying to subdue a combative inmate, and Dan McDaniel who was killed in an auto accident trying to stop drag racers.