DORCHESTER — Hundreds turned out as a new granite memorial to honor the lives of two Dorchester police officers was dedicated on Sunday, May 6, 2018 at Pope John Paul II Park in Neponset. The memorial to the late Trooper Mark S. Charbonnier and Suffolk County Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Richard “Ricky” Dever sits near the drawbridge not far from Granite Avenue.

The ceremony marked the end of three years of work to raise the money and build support for the memorial, according to the Dorchester Reporter. The memorial was realized by legislation filed by state Rep. Dan Hunt.

According to news reports, Charbonnier, a six-year veteran of the State Police was murdered by a gunman while on duty on Route 3 in Kingston in 1994. Dever was killed in 2005 as he tried to stop a disturbance in a Charlestown bar caused by a man who later stabbed him to death at the scene.

As the memorial seeks to make clear in words etched on a stone bench facing three large granite markers, “It’s not how they died that made them heroes, it’s how they lived.”

Mark was older than Ricky by about seven years— but the two “Ronan Park kids” shared a bond with many of their contemporaries from St. Peter’s parish and Meetinghouse Hill, according to the Dorchester Reporter. One of the three markers explains their common roots: “Mark and Ricky: American Heroes, Dorchester Born, Boston Strong.”

All photos by Steve Allen