Air University colonel's ancestor first to be killed

Col. Stephen Sanders, and his mother Peggy Sanders were two of the special invitees to a ceremony in Montgomery, Alabama, May 16, to honor the city's law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Sanders' great-great-great-great grandfather, Silas Goree, whose name can be seen on the memorial to the right, was Montgomery's first law enforcement officer killed while on duty. His death on January 1, 1829, came nearly 10 years after the city was incorporated. Constable Silas Goree was stabbed to death while serving a writ of debt at the location of the old Montgomery County Courthouse near where the Court Square Artisan Basin Fountain now stands. Sanders' mother lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Sanders is the vice commander of Air University's Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education. The ceremony was held to commemorate National Police Week. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Alexa Culbert)