NEWS

Fallen Officers’ Families Grateful the Sacrifice is Recognized Yearly

Red River Radio | By Jeff Ferrell

Published May 17, 2024 at 11:09 AM CDT

Frances Tompkins attended the 2024 memorial ceremony on Thursday [05/16] Morning for local fallen officers at the Police and Firefighters Memorial in Barnwell Gardens. It is located along the Clyde Fant Parkway in downtown Shreveport. Her husband, Thomas Glen Tompkins, died in the line of duty while serving as a Shreveport Police Patrolman on October 20, 1978. — Frances Tompkins attended the 2024 memorial ceremony for local fallen officers at the Police and Firefighters Memorial in Barnwell Gardens on Clyde Fant Parkway in downtown Shreveport. Her husband, Thomas Glen Tompkins died in the line of duty as a Shreveport Police Patrolman on October 20, 1978

The ceremony took place at the Police and Firefighters Memorial in Barnwell Gardens, located on Clyde Fant Parkway in downtown Shreveport.

A memorial ceremony this week paid tribute to the 40 officers and deputies who have died in the line of duty since 1894 from 10 law enforcement agencies in northwest Louisiana: the Caddo, Bossier, Desoto and Webster Parish sheriffs' offices, along with the Shreveport, Bossier City, and Greenwood Police departments, and the Shreveport City Marshal’s Office, Louisiana State Police, and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The ceremony took place at the Police and Firefighters Memorial in Barnwell Gardens, located on Clyde Fant Parkway in downtown Shreveport.

Shreveport Police Patrolman Thomas Glen Tompkins was shot and killed while transporting a prisoner to jail on Friday, October 20, 1978.

One of those fallen officers, 31-year-old Thomas Glen Tompkins, died on Friday, October 20, 1978, while on patrol in Shreveport, just eight months on the job. Officer Tompkins' wife, Frances, was among the loved ones who attended the ceremony Thursday morning. She recalls the chain of events which led to her husband’s death 46 years ago. “He went to pick up a drunk and disorderly, and they had a gun hidden, I guess in the crotch of his pants or something, and he had escaped from another facility, And his sister had bought the gun for him.”
Secretly armed, the gunman, Wayne Robert Felde, shot officer Tompkins in the back as he began to drive away from the scene of the arrest. Felde ran off, but was later captured, tried, convicted and then executed 10 years later.

SHREVEPORT, La. (Oct. 20, 1978) -- The police car driven by Shreveport police officer Thomas Glen Tompkins rests against the guard rail on the 7300 block of Mansfield Road where the car came to a halt after Tompkins was shot in the back by Wayne Robert Felde who had been arrested on a charge of drunk and disorderly conduct.

Tompkins' daughter, Sherri English, joined her mother for the ceremony. Together, they both reflected on why such memorials are so important, saying almost in unison, “I think they should always honor police officers. I mean, they just risk their life every day, protecting others. They get no respect, basically for the job that they do.”

Law enforcement agencies include: the Caddo, Bossier, Desoto and Webster Parish sheriff’s offices, along with the Shreveport, Bossier City, and Greenwood police departments, and the Shreveport City Marshal’s Office, Louisiana State Police, and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

This memorial ceremony is a long-standing annual event and takes place during National Police week.