An Austin police officer is remember Friday morning for his ultimate sacrifice.
Officer Ralph Ablanedo died in 1978 during a routine traffic stop. Ablanedo pulled over a vehicle in the 900 block of Live Oak Street in South Austin. The driver he pulled out a gun, shot, and killed him.
Friday morning, a granite memorial went up along that stretch of Live Oak Drive in his honor. Officers, family, and friends gathered around the memorial site to watch including Ablanedo's widow and his former partner.
“This memorializes the tragic event that happened here. It should be here. It's symbolic for that,” said Ablanedo’s partner, Bruce Mills.
The memorial stands five feet tall and is made entirely of granite. It is the fifth such memorial to go up in Austin in honor of officers who died in the line of duty.
The sign along Live Oak Drive, however, is not getting full support from the community. Some 70 people who live in the Travis Heights neighborhood where Ablanedo died signed a petition protesting the memorial in their community. They claim the size and wording are not appropriate for a residential area. It tells the story of the officer's sacrifice. Some others who live in the neighborhood say they offer their full support.
“The point is that an officer died in the line of duty and so this is a good way to memorialize him, and if it doesn't quite look right I don't think that's really the point,” said Jordan Torres who lives in the neighborhood, but supports the memorial.
The residents who opposed the memorial suggested it go up a few blocks down at a neighborhood park. The city instead decided to put the memorial up on the other side of the street as a sort of compromise.
Ablanedo's memorial is part of a larger initiative to honor all fallen APD officers. Granite memorials are going up at each site where an officer died while serving the community dating back to the late 1800s. A Texas company donated the materials and the time to install the memorials. There are 19 in all.
