National Police Week: MD Officers Who Died In Line Of Duty

MARYLAND — The biggest effect the coronavirus pandemic had on National Police Week isn't that activities in Maryland and elsewhere have been postponed, but the number of police officers whose lives and careers were cut short by the virus.

While their names won’t be read at the National Police Officers’ Memorial Service until its Oct. 16 rescheduled date, they will be honored virtually during National Police Week from May 9-16 this year.

The coronavirus has been cited for one police officer line of duty death in Maryland in 2021, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. Nationally, 63 of the 119 police line of duty deaths in 2021 as of May 4, just under 53 percent, have been due to the virus.

COVID-19 caused 234 of the 362 line of duty deaths nationwide in 2020. Before the virus, 150 active police officers died across the United States throughout 2019.

This year, two police officers in Maryland died while on duty, including the virus-related death. They were:

• Corporal Christine Peters, Greenbelt Police Department
  • End of watch: January 14, 2021
  • Cause of Death: Struck by vehicle
  • Details: Peters died from injuries suffered 12 days earlier when she was struck by a vehicle on Edmonston Road, north of Cherrywood Lane, while assisting officers from the United States Park Police at the scene of a crash at about 10 p.m. Another vehicle struck Officer Peters while she was outside of her vehicle. She was flown to a local hospital where she died from her injuries. Peters had served with the Greenbelt Police Department for 22 years and had previously served with the University of Maryland Police Department for five years. She was posthumously promoted to the rank of corporal. She is survived by her husband, daughter, and son.

• Director of Field Operations Beverly Good, U.S. Department of Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection - Office of Field Operations
  • End of watch: Jan. 28, 2021
  • Cause of death: COVID-19
  • Details: Good died from complications as the result of contracting COVID-19 in the line of duty. She had served with the United States Customs and Border Patrol - Office of Field Operations, and the legacy United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, for 30 years. She was assigned as the Director of Field Operations for the Baltimore Field Office. She is survived by her husband, two daughters, three grandchildren, mother, father, and siblings.

No Maryland officers were listed as killed in the line of duty in 2020.

After the coronavirus, shootings have caused the most police line of duty deaths nationally, as “gunfire” was cited by the Officer Down Memorial Page. Nine police officers died by “vehicular assault,” seven in car crashes and six were fatally hit by a car.

Beginning in early 2020, thousands of law enforcement officers and other first responders throughout the country contracted COVID-19 during the worldwide pandemic due to requirements of their job. Many of these first responders have died as a result of COVID-19, and continue to do so as the virus spreads across the United States.

Since then, before the pandemic it had grown to attract up to 40,000 attendees every year.

The National Police Week schedule features a series of events, including seminars and a candlelight vigil. Due to the coronavirus, the candlelight vigil has been put off to Oct. 14, and the national police survivors conference to Oct. 15.