This society tomb is in Greenwood and features an amazingly detailed carving of the NOPD star and crescent badge and cap. Within the tomb’s twelve vaults rest officers and/or their immediate family who’ve chosen to belong to the Police Mutual Benevolent Association (PMBA); they need not have died in the line of duty, only to have been active members in the PMBA at their time of death.

However, one name I recognized did die on the job, under horrific circumstances. Officer Nicola Cotton was patrolling a particularly rough section of the city when she was called to deal with a vagrant. The man, who’d been previously diagnosed with severe mental illness struggled with the petite policewoman, ultimately getting her gun away from her and shooting her 15 times in broad daylight.

The outcry was intense and immediate- questions were raised:why are officers sent out to patrol on their own when it’s much safer to do so in pairs, of sexual equality in the job, and inquiries into why an obviously deranged man was allowed to walk the streets.

In the end there were a lot more questions than answers, and at just 24, she seems entirely too young to be here.