Long Beach honors police, firefighters who died in line of duty

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- Long Beach city leaders came together Tuesday morning to honor police and firefighters who have died in the line of duty.

Officials paid tribute to the 29 police employees and 14 firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving the city.

The annual memorial held in the city's downtown area featured a 21-gun salute and was attended by Mayor Rex Richardson, Police Chief Chief Wally Hebeish and Fire Chief Dennis Buchanan.

The tribute came at a time when the city is seeing a spike in violent crimes. Over the weekend, seven people were injured in a shooting.

To curb violence, Hebeish stressed the importance of prevention and relations between police and the community.

"Those are the types of things you do before something happens, and so that's really the foundation of community policing, which this department is built on," Hebeish said. "So we engage in our community when we can."

"We have to remember that we're all part of the city family, same social fabric and we have to do everything we can as a broader continuum," Richardson said.