Nonprofit funds Lyon Co. Sheriff's Office trip to D.C.
ROCK RAPIDS, IA (KELO) — The Lyon County Sheriff's Office is reflecting on a trip to the nation's capital to honor one of their own during National Police Week.
It's been nearly six years since Lyon County Deputy Stephanie Schreurs died from her injuries in a patrol car crash.
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'She was never afraid to back you up anywhere you went,' Lyon County Chief Deputy Mark Dorhout said.
Deputy Schreurs was honored in 2020 during National Police Week in Washington, D.C., but, due to the pandemic, the ceremony looked a lot different.
'It was all done virtually, so nobody had the opportunity to be down there at that time,' Dorhout said. 'It was a lot different watching it just on TV than being there in person.'
So, Lyon County Sheriff Brian Hilt reached out to the Iowa Concerns of Police Survivors Association (COPS) for help. The nonprofit offers resources to surviving families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
And last week, Lyon County law enforcement received an opportunity they'd been waiting on for years— the chance to travel to D.C. to honor Schreurs and thousands of other fallen officers.
'[Iowa COPS] are the ones that funded the trip. They basically paid for the airfare and the hotel and stuff like that for us to go down there and line everything up for us to be there,' Dorhout said.
A group of 12 Lyon County law enforcement officials took part in the candlelight vigil, a memorial service and various grief classes while in D.C.
'It was very relatable being surrounded by plenty of other people in our shoes and who are currently going through the same things that we had gone through back in 2019,' Lyon County Deputy Sheriff Alex Waagmeester said.
Like the many moments of support, also came moments that hit home.
'It was emotional, obviously, seeing her name engraved on the wall. They gave us pieces of paper at the wall that you could trace her name on,' Dorhout said.
It was an emotional but healing opportunity to honor Lyon County's first female deputy, taken too soon.
'It was a good, cathartic experience to finally help kind of get some more closure on that,' Waagmeester said.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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