A sheriff's deputy, an Elizabethtown Police Chief, and a Bladenboro policeman will be among the fallen law enforcement officers honored in May.

Several local events will be held leading up to a state memorial service for Peace Officers' Memorial Day in Greensboro May 17.

Elizabethtown Police Chief Jimmy Bell was shot to death in 1972 while trying to arrest a robbery suspect.

Bladenboro Police Officer Brian Ramey was killed May 12, 2001. The suspect Ramey was chasing was also killed in the accident when he rammed Ramey's patrol car.

Bladen County Sheriff's Deputy Jamie Collins was a passenger in a Clarkton patrol car when he was killed during a high speed chase Sept. 27, 2001.

Collins and Ramey's names will be among the newest additions to the law enforcement memorial in Washington, D.C. on May 18.

Both men will be honored in ceremonies in Greensboro and Bladenboro.

In Elizabethtown, a memorial service will be held May 15 at the Municipal Building honoring Chief Bell.

The town will dedicate N.C. 87 Business within the town limits as the Jimmy Bell Memorial Highway. The program begins at 11 a.m.

In Bladenboro, a service will honor both Ramey and Collins at the Town Hall May 16 at 10:30 a.m.

Bladenboro Police Chief Danny Russ said he will never forget the night Ramey was killed.

"I was baking a cake for Mother's Day," he said, "when I got the call that an officer might have been killed in a wreck, and he was one of mine."

Ramey was a hard worker, Russ said. The chief said he often had to order Ramey to go home.

"He would have worked all day and all night all the time if I'd let him," Russ said.

Russ said local officers will escort members of the Ramey and Collins families to Greensboro and Washington for the state and national memorial services.

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