Norfolk, Va. - A tense meeting between the Cottage Road Park Civic League and friends and family of a fallen Norfolk police officer ended abruptly on Monday night.
It all started Sunday when the civic league posted on Facebook, saying it was time to take down a memorial to Officer Brian Jones on Wellington Road and move items from it to his grave. The post read, "It's time to move forward just like Officer Jones widow [sic]."
The memorial is near where Jones was killed in the line of duty in May 2014 as he was trying to stop a gunman who had already taken the life of a 17-year-old.
Rebekah Jones, the widow, said she had no idea the memorial was moved.
"My heart dropped and I was like, 'Who would do something like that?"
To get answers to that, she and dozens of friends and family members came to the civic league meeting, where the vice president explained the memorial had become an eyesore and wasn't being maintained. He also admitted he never called Rebekah Jones. "I wish more than anything that I had done that," said John Moscoe.
Jones said she needed an apology from the civic league president because the two had a disagreement earlier in the day over whether the memorial could go back up. After several attempts of getting an apology, Kitty Ledsome stood up and said, "I am very, very, very sorry that this has happened."
Friends of Jones thought that was insincere and left the meeting without getting what they said they wanted. Ledsome had no further comment after the meeting. Moscoe told reporters that was clearly not how he wanted the meeting to go. He did say the memorial could stay.
