Family of fallen Cleveland police officer asked to remove part of memorial by ODOT for 2nd time

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – For the second time in lower than a 12 months, the household of a fallen Cleveland police officer has been requested to take away a part of a memorial on the freeway the place he died.

Final summer season the household was requested to take away a wood signal honoring officer David Fahey. The Ohio Division of Transportation mentioned it was a security hazard. The household mentioned they understood and eliminated it.

“My brother made the last word sacrifice for this group and there’s a sense that they’re turning their backs on us,” mentioned Chris Porter, the brother of Officer Fahey.

For police week a number of days in the past the household put up a skinny blue line flag. They are saying this time they aren’t taking it down.

“Because it was defined to us, it was a security hazard as a result of indicators on the freeway are designed to breakaway safely and never trigger any extra injury to autos or individuals and a heavy wood signal would trigger that injury and naturally, we don’t need anyone to get damage or something like that,” mentioned Porter.

Final Thursday Chris porter put up a skinny blue line flag to honor his brother throughout police week and only a day or so later ODOT reached out to them to take it down.

“To be instructed that it’s important to take a mushy flag down as a result of it’s a hazard to the freeway, it’s irritating,” admitted Porter. “Particularly as a result of I continually level out to ODOT that there are political indicators alongside the aspect of the freeway that they don’t put a lot fervor into the elimination of.”

Fahey died after responding to a deadly accident in January of 2017. He was killed by a hit-and-run driver when he was simply 39 years outdated.

There’s a brown memorial signal authorized by ODOT for Officer Fahey positioned on i-90 close to the Warren Street exit.

“We do recognize the signal,” mentioned Porter. “It’s been dropped at our consideration effectively they put up the signal and we perceive that however we wanna have our contact to it, it’s a spot that we will’t be. We are able to’t go to the place we misplaced him as a result of it’s in the course of a high-speed freeway and that’s the one place the place we really feel that we will safely honor him for what he sacrificed.”

ODOT mentioned no signage is allowed on state property until it’s authorized and there are completely no exceptions.

“We’re gonna proceed to combat again and we aren’t gonna take the flag down, that’s not gonna occur,” Porter mentioned. “We’re gonna proceed to honor my brother and combat for my brother as a result of that was the place that he was killed attempting to assist individuals on this city.”

The household says if ODOT takes the flag down they’ll put it again up each January as a result of that’s when Fahey died and each Might for police week.

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