Three Catawba County officers were honored as their names are added to the National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. Conover Police Chief Gary Lafone’s career blossomed from the tragedy of one of the fallen officers.

In November 1971, Sheriff’s Deputy Ted Elmore pulled a car over on U.S. 70 near the Hickory Motor Speedway to ask the driver to turn his high-beam headlights off. What he found was a car full of guns and ammunition, Lafone said. In an instant, bullets flew from the vehicle striking Elmore multiple times, paralyzing him from the waist down.  He died as a result of medical complications related to the gun shot wounds on April 27, 1983.

When Lafone was hired as a Sheriff’s deputy in January of 1972 under Sheriff Dale Johnson, he knew exactly who he was replacing.

“In a way, I was honored to be hired to replace him, but it was tragic,” Lafone said.

Lafone had been taking law enforcement classes at Western Piedmont Community College at the time, when his instructor, John Boyd, informed him there was an open position at the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office.

He was 19 and thought it was a perfect opportunity to start his career in law enforcement, which has continued 36 years.

After Lafone started working at the Sheriff’s Department, he got to know Elmore before he died.  Lafone said Elmore and his wife would come by the Sheriff’s Department and the two would talk every few weeks. “Everyone that knew him respected him,” he said.

A year later, Lafone worked court security at the trial for the people who shot Elmore.  It was discovered they were actually members of a terrorist organization who were on their way to assassinate someone and Elmore got in their way.  The trial was moved to Statesville and Lafone’s job was to look after Elmore’s wife, Jan, during the weeklong trial.

The men involved were convicted and sent to prison, but that did little to ease the pain.  When one officer is injured, it hurts them all.  It’s the nature of the brotherhood, Lafone said.

The death of Elmore in 1983 penetrated the hearts of all in the local law enforcement community.  Lafone, who was working at the Hickory Police Department as a lieutenant at the time, said it broke all barriers to unite every police department.

“You may have some turf battles between agencies, establishing jurisdiction. Something like that happens and everything else goes away.  It brings everyone closer together — it’s a brotherhood,” Lafone said.

After two years in Hickory, he advanced to the position of sergeant when he moved to Conover Police Department in 1984.  Elmore’s death remained at the forefront of his mind.

When he heard about officers in other departments being shot at or injured, “I was always thinking about the situation with Ted,” Lafone said. “Or when officers had to shoot someone.”

He added, “It’s something you hope, as a law enforcement executive, that you never have to deal with the death of an officer, because it’s something that impacts the entire agency.”

There are 15 North Carolina officers now on the national memorial. Thankfully, Lafone no Conover officers are on it.

Also added to the memorial this year were Catawba County Sheriff’s Deputy John O. Yount who died Oct. 1, 1967, and James A. McRee who died on Nov. 3, 1937, while serving as a Sheriff’s Deputy.