100 years after one of Richmond’s most infamous crimes, family and police gather to pay tribute to fallen officer

With bowed heads and lifted flags, family and police officers gathered to commemorate Sgt. J. Harvey Burke, who was shot and killed in the line of duty exactly one century ago.

“I grew up without a grandfather, my dad grew up without a father,” said grandson H. Penn Burke, who produced the Monday morning service. 

“When an officer gets up in the morning and puts his uniform on and goes to work and doesn’t return because of something that happened, just like with my grandfather, that’s a tremendous sacrifice for the family.”

The sergeant was killed in the so-called “crime of the century.” He was escorting a woman home during a domestic dispute with her boyfriend. After the woman told her boyfriend that they would never see each other again, he fatally shot her, then turned his gun toward Burke, killing him as well.

Penn said the Richmond Police Department “stepped in” to help his widowed grandmother raise her children. City leaders and local organizations pooled together enough money to purchase a home in the Museum District, where Burke’s widow and children raised their own families. Growing up, Penn said he had many surrogate fathers and grandfathers, and most of them wore police uniforms. 

Burke’s legacy was immortalized in 1987 when a memorial statue — previously located at Byrd Park — was erected in memory of 39 officers killed in the line of duty.

In 2020, the statue was removed and stored away after repeated vandalism, and it’ll find a second life in front of the Police Academy. Even though there’s no set date for when the statue will be placed, Penn is hopeful and grateful to those who made the memorial possible.

“I personally cannot wait to see [the statue] unwrapped,” Penn said.

When he had the idea for the memorial service and mentioned it to Police Chief Rick Edwards, “he was very excited about it.” Many officers attended the ceremony, including Edwards, who stood by the grave.

“Police are constantly getting bad press for different things that some bad police might do,” Penn said after the service. 

“[We are] getting the word out that police are not all bad. There are police that serve and protect, and some pay the ultimate price.”

During the memorial, speakers repeatedly called Burke a “peacekeeper” — a title they agreed he embodied and other officers should aspire to.

Contact Reporting Intern Eleanor Shaw at eshaw@richmonder.org. This article has been updated to reflect the original placement of the statue.