Bridge Named for Fallen Officer

Hope Mills, N.C. — A bridge on the new Hope Mills Bypass was named Friday for a police officer who died on the job a year ago.

Sgt. James Heath Hardin, 35, died of a heart attack last Jan. 11 while he and his dog chased a theft suspect through the woods near Tom Starling Road and U.S. Highway 301 South. He was a nine-year veteran of the Hope Mills Police Department.

A bridge over a CSX rail line on Friday was named the Sgt. James Heath Hardin Memorial Bridge.