Connecting with Community: Marion County Sheriff's Office memorial

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - In a warmly lit conference room at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, retired police officer Jerry Baker recounts the memories leading up his son’s untimely death.

“What really amazed me about Jason is he really just embraced the ethics of law enforcement and helping people in this community,” Baker said.

Deputy Jason Baker had been a member of the force for two years before an incident took his life. On Sept. 17, 2001, he was responding to a call when his attention was diverted to another car. He began to follow the car, but the driver of the vehicle refused to stop, inciting a chase. During the chase, two of the suspects in the vehicle fired AK-47 rifles, damaging Deputy Baker's patrol car.

"There’s a guy that was under fire,” said Jerry Baker as he relived the night he lost his firstborn son. “He was outmanned and outgunned. He was injured. His car was damaged. He could've quit. But he didn't quit."

Deputy Baker continued to chase the vehicle ahead of him. At one point, the suspects turned a corner, stopped, and the men inside setup an ambush from inside their car. When Baker approached 32nd Street and Brouse Avenue, the suspects opened fire, fatally striking him.

One of the suspects was shot and killed the next day after an eight-hour standoff with police. The other three suspects were arrested and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

"Sometimes you can do everything right in this job and still have a very bad outcome, and that's what happened,” said Jerry Baker.

A sketch of the fallen officer now hangs in a conference room in the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in downtown Indianapolis. Baker’s picture is flanked by the pictures of nine other fallen officers on the Sheriff’s force.

“Of the ten pictures on the wall, I’ve been to six of those funerals,” said Marion County Sherriff John Layton.

Layton oversaw the redesign of the conference room in early 2012. His goal was to make the room, which was already named for fallen officers, a thoughtful representation of their service to the community. The redesign included a warmly hued paint color and the sketches of each of the fallen officers. Current deputies on the force spent their free time, and no tax dollars, to complete the job.

At the entrance of the Sheriff’s Office in downtown Indianapolis, a 6-foot bronze statue pays tribute to the deputies who have lost their lives while trying to protect the public. The statue was commissioned on Sept. 11, 2009, and unveiled at the 9-11 anniversary one year later.

"Although we don't want to relive these days, and we hope it never happens again, we can't forget what these men and women sacrificed,” said Layton.

Before his death, fallen Deputy Baker had become friends with a 911 dispatcher who was very familiar with loss. Dawn Veirs grew up never knowing her father. Eight months before she was born, her father, Deputy Tom Settles, was shot and killed by two bank robbers in Cumberland.

"He knew they were in trouble and they needed him,” said Veirs. “He went in, and he didn't stop. He had already been shot twice and was still fighting when the second gunman came over the counter and shot him in the head.”

As a toddler, Veirs was given a necklace with an imprint of her father’s face. She continues to wear it every day as a reminder of his bravery.

“When I look in the mirror I can see him looking back at me," said Veirs.

She was present when the town of Cumberland recently renamed part of Saturn Street Tom Settles Boulevard to commemorate Settles’ sacrifice.

A scholarship fund was established in memory of Deputy Baker. The fund is managed by the Central Indiana Community Foundation and will provide scholarships to those seeking careers in public safety.

"It reminds them of the dangers of the job. It reminds them of the importance of the job. And it reminds them of the commitment that they've made," said Jerry Baker.