May 15th marks National Peace Officers Memorial Day to remember the men and women who have given their lives while protecting our communities. Eight years ago Keokuk County saw one of its own killed in the line of duty. On April 4th, 2011 Sergeant Eric Stein, along with another deputy and the county sheriff, attempted to question a man at a home in rural Sigourney. Shortly after arriving at the house the man began shooting at the three, fatally hitting Stein. He was 39 years-old. The sheriff and deputy called for assistance and the man barricaded himself in his home. Three hours later the man left the home with a firearm and was killed by an Iowa State Patrol tactical unit. Stein served his community with the Keokuk County Sheriff’s Office for 11 years.

On this day, local communities also remember Marshal Douglas Paul Bell killed near Keota in 1976, Marshal William Ross Hanshaw who was shot in Fairfield in 1917, and 27-year-old Patrolman George Alden Wright of the Mt. Pleasant Police Department who was fatally wounded in 1931