Group honors fallen police officers

Specially decorated car unveiled at Cass County Criminal Justice Center

The project of creating a unique car to honor fallen Texas officers brings together, from left, Mike Rinehart of Atlanta's East Texas Wraps; Byron Colston of Sanger, Texas, and founder of Cops 4 Cops Texas; and Brandon Barnett of Ink Wrap Shop, Tulsa, Okla.
The project of creating a unique car to honor fallen Texas officers brings together, from left, Mike Rinehart of Atlanta's East Texas Wraps; Byron Colston of Sanger, Texas, and founder of Cops 4 Cops Texas; and Brandon Barnett of Ink Wrap Shop, Tulsa, Okla.

Cop 4 Cops Texas, the fledgling statewide movement to honor lives of fallen officers, and a 6-month-old Cass County business created an unusual way to promote the memorial effort.

The creation is affixed to a 2010 wrapped Camaro, the only one of its kind in Texas meant to serve when requested as lead vehicle in funerals or memorial ceremonies for fallen officers.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/JOHN SYKES JR. - Renata Jenkins Byler. 031914

The vehicle was presented to Cops 4 Cops Texas in ceremonies at the Cass County Criminal Justice Center Wednesday. The event also commemorated recent fallen officer, Damon Allen of Mexia, for whom the vehicle is dedicated. More than 30 officers and 20 members of the Allen family as well as public officials were present.

Allen, with 15 years experience with Texas Highway Patrol, was shot and killed on Thanksgiving Day while making a traffic stop on Interstate 45 south of Fairfield in Freestone County. Shooting suspect Dabrett Black was in custody within hours of the attack.

The fallen officer's wife and children were present for the memorial event Wednesday in Cass County Criminal Justice Center. They are his wife, Kasey Pickett Allen, daughters Chelsea Allen Quinn, Kaitlyn Allen, Madison Allen and son Cameron Allen.

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AP

Pedestrians walk along the Aure River in Bayeux, France. The charming town sits just a few miles from the beaches of Normandy where Allied forces invaded on D-Day during World War II in 1944.

The car is distinctive because of its vinyl wrapped decor, which pictures a flowing thin-blue-line Texas flag draped over the car. Mark Rinehart of East Texas Wraps of Atlanta, Texas, did the installation from a design and printing by Brandon Barnett of Ink Wrap Shop in Tulsa, Okla. Cops 4 Cops is the creation of Bryon Colston of Sanger, Texas.

All of their contributions were free.

In his remarks, Rinehart told the crowd of how his role in the project came about so unexpectedly, especially since he, too, is a 22-year member of Texas DPS.

"My shop is really an avocation at the moment. We're probably the smallest wrap shop in Texas, only 6 months old. Somehow I got a phone call from a Bryon Colston in October asking if I'd like to be part of this project to honor fallen officers. Without hearing anything more, I immediately said, 'yes," Rinehart said.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/JOHN SYKES JR. - Renata Jenkins Byler. 031914

Then, after weeks of work to fund the project, on the day after Thanksgiving that Coslton called to say they had the car, he noted they also had a reason to dedicate it to a fallen office. Trooper Allen had just died the day before.

"This project had come to life," Rinehart said. "I was honored to be part of it, a visual representation of what Cops 4 Cops Texas is all about."

The car itself had been given by Mike Ramos of Flower Mound, Texas.

Donors for the $1,000 cost of the vinyl material were, locally, Malcolm Stanley of Rapid Lube in Atlanta and Curtis Wellborn of Wellborn's Diesel in Queen City. In Corinth and Duncanville, the project contributors included Danny Del Torre of TAC Solar and Jake Stangl and Randy Derrick of North Texas Vehicle Warnings Solutions, TAC Solar, P2 Concepts and Shuyler Signs.

Colston founded Cops 4 Cops in 2014. He had personal knowledge of the need to support fallen officers and their families and to work proactively for peace officer safety and equipment because while serving as a peace officer in Ladonia, Texas, in 2008, he had been injured in the line of duty and retired afterwards.

At the ceremony, District 9 Texas State Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, told the crowd that while he receives thank-you's for his service, all that he does "pales in comparison with the service and sacrifice of peace officers in Texas."

District 106 Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Little Elm, who had been expected to attend, recently introduced a resolution in favor of Cops 4 Cops and its founder Colton in the 85th session of the House of Representatives.

After the ceremony, the crowd went outside the building where the Allen family members rolled back the wrappings of the wrapped car to the applause of some 100 people.

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