LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Seventeen ‘thin blue line’ flags waved by the ‘Welcome to Las Vegas Sign’ as Officer Jason Roscow’s police motorbike, casket, and those escorting drove down Las Vegas Boulevard on Thursday morning.
Each flag represented a year of fallen officer Jason Roscow’s service with the North Las Vegas Police Department.
John Waudby came out in the early morning rain to place the flags.
“This is the first time that I’ve done this that it’s been cloudy and cold and rainy,” Waudby said. “But you know what, our heroes go to work no matter what, and I’m out here no matter what.”
Waudby has been memorializing fallen officers for the past ten years.
He started by waving a single flag at Sunset Road and Las Vegas Boulevard, but now each memorial stands in front of the ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’ sign.
People stopping by the sign, like Antionette Giustina, took notice of the memorial and paid their respects.
“Every fallen officer that’s tragically taken, it’s a loss all the way around. It’s just a loss and it’s senseless. It brings tears to my heart,” Giustina said.
For Waudby, it has been a decade of making memorials, and he wishes he never needed to place one again, saying it takes an emotional toll on him as well.
“We’re laying another one to rest,” Waudby said. “This is the eighth one in ten years that I’ve been out here, and they’re becoming way too frequent.”
There was an 18th flag at the memorial — the flag of Illinois — representing Officer Roscow’s home state.
