The Americus-based police officers who were shot and killed by a suspect in December will be memorialized on the Georgia Southwestern State University campus, the school announced.
GSW will rename its public safety building the Nicholas Smarr and Jody Smith Memorial Building, according to the announcement.
Smarr, 25, and Smith, 26, were slain after they answered a domestic disturbance call at an apartment complex, as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The man accused of shooting them, Minquell Kennedy Lembrick, took his own life with a gunshot the next day after he was surrounded by officers, authorities said.
Smarr, an Americus officer, and Smith, a Georgia Southwestern officer, were high school classmates and graduated together from the police academy at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.
“The dedication of our building to our fine young fallen officers is an honor to our department,” GSW Public Safety Director Mike Tracy said. “Both of these men, at a young age, dedicated themselves to a profession of public service.”
“Nick Smarr and Jody Smith were outstanding police officers and great human beings,” Americus police Chief Mark Scott said in the announcement. “They will always be remembered for the sacrifice they made in the name of the profession they both loved, but more importantly, they will always be remembered as beloved sons and brothers, friends, and comrades.”
The date of the naming ceremony will be announced later in the spring, GSW said.
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