Memorial Service To Be Held Commemorating Fallen Pulaski County Officers

Sheriff Michael Gayer

A memorial service to commemorate the lives of the three fallen officers in the line of duty while on staff at the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department will be held Tuesday, May 29th, at Noon ET in front of the Sheriff’s Department. Pulaski County Sheriff Michael Gayer says the memorial service is an annual event.

“Each year we get the whole department together, all 42 of us, and we stand in front of the Sheriff’s Office and I conduct a service and we have the traditional Taps and a 21-gun salute,” said Gayer. “We then have lunch for the members here at the Sheriff’s Department and the families of the slain officers.”

Sheriff Gayer says three officers have been killed in the line of duty with the sheriff’s department, and each incident took place in October.

“The first officer killed was Sheriff Charles Henry Oglesby,” said Gayer. “He was killed Oct. 5, 1907 by gunfire from a gang of bank robbers that had hitched a ride on a train. The second was Sheriff Milo ‘Mike’ Lewis, and he was killed Oct. 11, 1967. A girlfriend of an inmate had smuggled in a gun inside of a Bible and when the inmate asked to use the phone the next day, he was let out of his cell with the Bible, pulled the gun on the sheriff and fatally shot him. The third was Deputy Shad Bassett who was killed Oct. 7, 2005 in an automobile crash while responding to a call on State Road 39.”

Everyone is welcome to attend this service on Tuesday.