Page 12 - Volume 28 Number 2

Member News
Rose Dog Park will be officially dedicated in honor of fallen Wayne State University Police K9 Officer Collin Rose during a Memorial Unveiling Ceremony 2-4 p.m. Saturday May 26, 2018.
The public is invited to bring their dogs for some off leash play in the park, located at 3701 Trumbull in Detroit’s Woodbridge Neighbor- hood, following the ceremony. Officers attending the ceremony should wear their agency’s class A uniform.
Rose regularly patrolled Woodbridge, southwest of Wayne State’s campus. The new park is a block west from where Rose was shot in the line of duty Nov. 22, 2016.
“After Officer Rose was shot and killed, the neighborhood was outraged, heartbroken, sickened, disgusted. Immediately, there were outcries to change the Scripps Park name,” said Tim Kethman, a resident member of Woodbridge Committee to Memorialize Officer Rose.
Kethman, who is also Woodbridge Park Committee Chairman, said plans were already in the works to revitalize the adjacent Scripps Park. “But the city also extended to us a dog park. It was an unfor- tunate coincidence — we wanted to name something after Collin Rose and the dog park was perfect.”
Mayor Mike Duggan announced plans to improve Scripps Park in March 2016 as part of his Parks and Recreation Improvement Plan. Major park renovations and work on the dog park took place last summer. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Oct. 21, 2017. Mayor Duggan, community members and Wayne State Police Officers were in attendance.
Fresh sod was added and the dog park was closed to allow it to
take root. Signage with park hours will be placed and the park will be ready for use this spring, just in time for the unveiling event, said Kethman.
Kethman and the Parks Committee launched an online fundraising campaign to place a cast iron medallion memorializing Rose in the park. Rose’s friend and co-worker Chris Powell helped publicize the effort. Powell is President of Wayne State University Police Officer Association.
“They did about six months of fundraising. He’s had us be the voice to his project,” Powell said. “We went before the City Council to give the dog park a name. Tim originally wanted it to be called Collin Rose Dog Park but, after some negotiation with City Council, the name was reduced to Rose Dog Park.
The name became official Oct. 3 following a unanimous City Coun- cil vote. The decision was made right before Powell’s honeymoon, an ironic twist as Rose also planned to marry his fiancée, Nikki Salgot, on Oct. 14, 2017.
More than $10,000 was raised through crowdsourcing online and offline donations for the medallion, plaque and memorial-related costs, Kethman said.
The group also sought City acceptance of the medallion marker donation honoring Rose, which was just approved in March. The medallion, which is 42-inches in diameter and weighs 500 pounds, will be placed on the brick wall separating Rose Dog Park from Scripps Park and a plaque recognizing Officer Rose and those that helped memorialize him will be below it.
Kethman chose the medallion because Officer Rose proposed marriage to Nicole Salgot at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial kneeling next to the Memorial’s medallion. The proposal followed Rose’s participation in the 2016 Police Unity Tour, a 300- mile bicycle ride to Washington D.C. The ride’s arrival serves as the kick off for National Police Week.
Powell and Salgot are riding again in this year’s Police Unity Tour, along with two other WSU Police Officers. “We showed (Kethman) where Collin proposed and he was inspired to come up with a simi- lar design to honor Collin and his K9 partners,” Powell said.
Efforts to cast an artist rendering of the Rose memorial medallion were not initially successful and 3D imaging technology had to be used, delaying the project and raising the costs, he said.
“We wanted it to be in place in time for Collin’s birthday on April 1, but we understand the production delays,” Powell said. “We’re hoping Wayne State Honor Guard can make its formal debut at the
event. The unit fittingly features the two K9 handlers that were in- spired by Collin.” Rose, who was posthumously honored as a Ser- geant, was an Honor Guard member.
CRimiNAL CASE
Raymond Durham, who was charged with first-degree premed- itated murder for shooting Rose in the head, is expected to have another competency hearing during Police Week this May. Durham also faces several charges in connection with shooting two Detroit Police Officers March 15, 2017, including two counts of assault with intent to commit murder. One Officer was shot in the neck, the other in the leg. So far, Durham has been found incompetent to stand trial in both cases.
“We just passed the one-year anniversary of his apprehension and the officers involved are still going through the return to work battle,” Powell said. “They’re both doing well. We’re all going through this together. It’s unfortunate two officers got hurt but they found the needle in the haystack. We feel good about that, the right person was charged,” Powell said.
Dog park to honor fallen POLC
— By Jennifer Gomori, POJ Editor
12 • SPRING 2018