04:49 PM EDT on Monday, April 26, 2004

Associated Press and WVEC.com

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Engravers have been sandblasting 362 new names into the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial for nearly two weeks. Monday, they added the last names of 144 officers who died in the line of duty last year, including an officer from Norfolk, Virginia Beach and a Virginia state trooper.

"The price of public safety is paid for by the sweat, by the determination and sometimes by the blood of America's police officers," said Craig W. Floyd chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Virginia State Trooper Michael T. Blanton, 29, was killed in suburban Richmond on Jan. 29, 2003, after he stopped a man suspected of driving under the influence. When the motorist attempted to drive away, Blanton was dragged several hundred feet before the vehicle crashed.

"He enjoyed putting that uniform on and patrolling the highways to protect," said Lt. Col. Eugene Stockton of the Virginia State Police, recalling the fallen officer.

Shawn Gregory, 34, of Richmond, was sentenced to 56 years in prison in January after pleading guilty to three drug trafficking charges in connection with Blanton's death.

Officer Sheila Herring was killed on January 16, 2003.

Officer Rodney Pocceschi was killed in a shootout during a traffic stop on June 23.

Besides those killed last year, the names of 217 officers who lost their lives in the line of duty since the nation's earliest days were added.

"The earliest death we're adding this year is John Osborne, a watchman from Cleveland, Ohio, who died on Dec. 1, 1853," said Floyd.

Osborne is among 21 officers from the 19th century whose names are joining more than 16,600 others inscribed on the memorial since 1991. The earliest name is that of New York City Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith, who was shot and killed on May 17, 1792, while attempting to make an arrest.