Donald Ray Tucker Bridge honors fallen police officer

For 20 years the family of Clinton Police Officer Donald Ray Tucker has been fighting to get a prominent bridge in town named after him because he was killed in the line of duty.

Their persistence has paid off.

WRAL Fayetteville Reporter Gilbert Baez was there this morning when the bridge over Highway 24 was named in Tucker's memory.

Family members of Tucker say they'll never forget November 14, 1991.

"It was on a Thursday. He was on his last assignment dealing with two guys, Elton Guy Bell and Joey Lewis. That was his last assignment and things went wrong," recalls Reginald Tucker, his brother.

His father Billy Tucker says he loved his job and this community loved him.

"He loved what he was doing. He loved getting drugs off the street. He talked about drugs all the time. As a matter of fact, he went in churches and other places trying to get kids off the streets from drugs," says Billy.

Tucker's family has been fighting for the past 20 years to get this Highway 421 bridge that crosses Highway 24 in Clinton named in his memory.

""It's going to mean a lot to people that don't even know him. Maybe with Facebook and all of that will produce as to what he did and why he got killed," says his mother, Glenda Dawson-Tucker.

Tucker is the only Clinton Police Officer ever killed in the line of duty. That's why the dedication of the bridge was important not only to his family, but his police department as well.

"I think it's significant for the entire state and also the city of Clinton. It's a reminder to us the dangers the officers put themselves in day-to-day, as they go to work, never knowing if they're going to come home or not," says Anthony Davis, the Clinton Police Chief.

So if you're traveling north, south, east or west through Clinton, you're going to have to go over or under the Donald Ray Tucker Bridge – and that's exactly what the family wanted.