CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The community is invited to say goodbye to one of the four officers killed in an ambush on police in east Charlotte last week.
"They have no respect for police officers," neighbor Vanessa Williams said.
"They lost their jobs doing something they loved," former officer Williams Ammons said.
North Carolina corrections officer Alden Elliott was honored during a memorial on the campus of Catawba Valley Community College Thursday evening. The service was open to the public and was held at the Tarlton Complex at the CVCC campus.
A procession escorted Elliott's family from Bennett Funeral Home in Newton to the college starting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. The community was there to pay their respects along the procession route. WCNC Charlotte did not have live coverage of Elliott's memorial service as the family requested no media at the venue.
Neighbors waved their flags in solidarity. They’re hoping his family will find comfort in knowing Officer Elliot will live forever in the heart of his country.
Elliott was one of four officers killed when a U.S. Marshals task force was serving arrest warrants at a home on Galway Drive on April 29. Five other officers were injured during the incident, including three Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers. He was a 14-year veteran with the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction and was a Marine. He joined the NCDAC Special Operations and Intelligence Unit in 2016 after serving as a parole officer.
Elliott's son, Theo, penned a heartbreaking poem that paid tribute to his father. The funeral home shared the poem with the public in Elliott's obituary:
"My daddy is a hero.
He died getting the bad guys, that's what he was good at.
He is a Marine.
He is a Police Officer.
He is kind and patient.
He keeps my mom and I safe.
He is my daddy; the best daddy."
Elliott's son closed the poem by saying he wants to be "just like" his dad.
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