Hundreds gathered at New Haven's Hillhouse High school to honor fallen Minneapolis police officer Jamal Mitchell who was killed in the line of duty late last month.
“Here we find ourselves again in Connecticut with mourning bands on our shields,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
On Monday, a final farewell was held for fallen Officer Mitchell, laid to rest in his home city of New Haven.
“Jamal Mitchell represented all that is good about the men and women in the Minneapolis Police Department and the men and women who serve in the policing profession,” Chief O’Hara said.
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Family, police officers from across the region, and hundreds of others gathered to remember Officer Mitchell, who was killed in an ambush while responding to a call on May 30 in Minneapolis.
"Jamal was courageous to his core. He was empathetic and he was deeply committed to our cause, especially today. Jamal was heroic as a man to the very end,” Chief O’Hara said.
The ceremony was filled with prayer and song, capped off with a eulogy delivered by Mitchell’s 101 year-old great grandmother, Apostle Martha Green.
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“I believe God told him to leave your kin and go to Minnesota. You got some work to do and after he finished his work, they shipped him back home,” she said.
Green, and others, spoke of a man of character who carried out the vow of serving his community to the very end.
“Jamal wasn’t just on the front lines in his patrol car. He was in the classrooms and in the schools. He was coaching. He was waving. Jamal knew that a smile was a smile in any language,” said Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell Higgins.
After the service, Officer Mitchell was laid to rest in a private ceremony at a cemetery in New Haven.
