Officers’ Funeral and Memorial Service Plans. After President Obama’s message Tuesday afternoon at the Meyerson, hundreds of mourners drove up to Farmers Branch to pay their respects to fallen officer Sgt. Michael Smith. A public memorial for DART officer Brent Thompson will begin at 10 a.m today at the Potter’s House Church in Dallas, and a funeral service for Sr. Cpl. Lorne Ahrens is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Prestonwood Baptist Church. Find more information for each of the funerals here. With the families’ permission, NBCDFW.com will livestream most of the services.
The Memorial’s Music. The gospel singer who took the mourners to church during Tuesday’s interfaith memorial is Gaye Arbuckle, the minister of music at Oak Cliff’s Concord Church. She sang “Total Praise” by Richard Smallwood because, as she said, “We needed something that would encourage all of us, white, black, brown, it doesn’t matter. In Dallas, we just need healing.” If you missed it, or just want to ugly-cry all over again, here’s the clip.
El Centro Officers Tell Their Tale. The two El Centro officers injured during the attack are on the mend and, despite the fact that one of them still had bullet fragments embedded in his side, were well enough to give a press conference Tuesday to walk reporters through their harrowing encounter with Micah X. Johnson.
DPD Will No Longer Have a Problem Filling a New Recruit Class. Just months ago, morale around and within the DPD was grim enough that several academy classes were cancelled due to low turnout. Now, in the days since the attack—and since Chief Brown encouraged protestors to put in an application and do something for their community—the DPD is being flooded with interested applicants.
Tweens’ Lemonade Stand Raises Thousands for Dallas Police. It’s the kind of story that isn’t necessarily surprising and still so great to hear in a time like this: Two North Dallas girls, 12-year-old Lauren Roach and 11-year-old Landry Nelon, handed over a $10,000 check to the Dallas Police Association after raising the funds with a lemonade stand in just two days.
